


Carry Your Throne

by blackmatter (viridianlight)



Category: Original Work
Genre: Alternate Universe - Royalty, Alternate Universe - Slavery, Amnesia, Angst, Attempted Kidnapping, Dildos, Fantasy, Fluff and Angst, Humiliation, Hurt/Comfort, Loss of Virginity, M/M, Non-Consensual Blow Jobs, Non-Consensual Bondage, Object Insertion, Porn With Plot, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Public Humiliation, Punishment, Sexual Abuse, Slavery, Torture, Whipping, Wrongful Imprisonment, tbh just self indulgent smut/torture rn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-13
Updated: 2018-11-21
Packaged: 2019-05-21 16:17:01
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 12
Words: 24,621
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14918687
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/viridianlight/pseuds/blackmatter
Summary: Luka is the Crown Prince and first in line to the Edeianos Kingdom, but after he is attacked and scarred, physically and mentally, his father begins to see him as a liability in the greedy war he has just launched the country into.Kieren is the personal slave and guard of Luka, and has chosen to devote his life to his protection, even at the cost of his own body. But in the back of his mind, always lingers Luka's promise to find his younger sister, who was ripped from him years ago.In the midst of the turmoil and pain riddling the palace, Luka's pride desires the throne and control of his kingdom, while his heart just wants Kieren in his arms. Luka and Kieren can only rely on each other to break through the corruption fueling the war, and bring Luka to his rightful throne.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Title and inspiration from Carry Your Throne by Jon Bellion

“You can choose any one you like,” Luka’s father says dismissively. “Just choose a strong looking one. We’ll have to train them appropriately, of course, but this slave will be your personal guard as well.”

“I know, you’ve told me.” Luka shuffled along the aisle, next to his father and their guards. His head is down. He can’t bear to look at any of the unkempt people slumped or snarling behind bars. “Why can’t I keep with the family guards? I don’t like it here.”

“You’re thirteen, Lukanos. It’s high time that you get accustomed to having a personal slave, as well as a personal guard.”

“How about this one Your Highness?” The slimy looking slave dealer leading them bows slightly and gestures behind one of the barred doors. “She’s very strong and supposed to be handy with a sword.” She is a broad-shouldered, red-haired woman who scowls as they walk by. Luka shrinks back inadvertently. His father snorts.

“Handy with a sword? Looks more like she’d kill my son with a sword.”

“O-Of course Your Majesty. Well, how about—“

A door bursts open at the end of the hall and out runs a boy with shaggy bangs and black hair in a thin braid, wearing the dust colored tunic and black cuffs and collar emblematic of a slave for sale. He only takes a few steps and a few gasping breaths before guards grab hold of his arms and pull his thrashing body back towards the door.

“No, let go of me! Don’t touch me. They took her! They took my sister. Let me go!”

“They didn’t ‘take’ her,” the seller says. “They bought her. As is their right to, slave.”

“How dare you, you monster. Let go of me! Let go — mmf!” One of the guards pulls out a worn brown gag from his belt and pushes it into the boy’s mouth.

Luka’s father raises an eyebrow as he watches the struggling boy ahead of them. “Hmm, I do hope you don’t allow all your products to behave this poorly.”

The seller rubs his hands together as he shakes his head vigorously. “No, no, Your Majesty, I assure you we do not allow this. And I promise that this slave will be put to death immediately. We do not tolerate this, Your Majesty.”

Fear sparks in the boy’s eyes and he resumes thrashing.

“Wait, wait,” Luka shouts, stepping forward. “No, don’t. I’ll take him.”

His father steps forward too, with a frown on his face. “Lukanos, you don’t want this one. He has already proven himself to be disobedient and rebellious.”

“No, I want him,” Luka states firmly.

His father sighs but waves a hand slightly. Their own guards move forward and take the place holding the arms of the boy. “Alright. We’ll take this one. I will let my son make his own decisions. Make his own mistakes.”

“Of course, Your Majesty, Your Highness. Of course,” the dealer says excitedly. “For your trouble and his misbehavior, you can have him on the house, Your Majesty. I’ll have him cleaned and delivered by sundown. Do you have a collar prepared or would you like to purchase one today? You’d like a custom one, I’m sure.”

Luka’s father pulls out a flat black box from inside his robes and opens it. It’s a light gold band with the family crest embedded on it and a half-ring across the circle from the crest. Both Lukas and the boy blanche at the sight. “No, we have our own,” his father says.

The dealer’s eyes sparkle greedily. “Oh, of course. Would you like to leave it with us and have us collar him or would you like him sent home with his current one?”

“This is pure gold,” his father snorts. “We’ll be taking it.”

“Of course, of course, understandable, Your Majesty.” The dealer backs away towards the boy and the open door, while bowing over and over again to Luka and his father. “I will have your new slave and the paperwork delivered by the end of the day. Thank you for your business, Your Majesty, Your Highness. It is always an honor to have royalty grace us. Thank you, thank you.”

With a curt nod and a sweep of his cape, Luka’s father strides back down the aisle, unseeingly past the riled up slaves. Luka, as usual, keeps his head down and trails behind the king.

+++

The blindfold is taken off of Kieren’s eyes and he is shoved into a small but sunlit room. His wrists are still bound but at least his legs are free again. He spins around the room, trying to get a hold on his surroundings. It’s bare, with just a dusty bed in the corner and a desk in the other. The ceilings are high and the windows are too far up for him to see out of.

There’s a soft knock on the door — a different one than the one Kieren was pushed through, he thinks — and he freezes. He was told not to speak unless spoken to. He was told he didn’t own anything, which he’s sure includes this room, so why was someone knocking to come in? There’s a quiet muttering before the door swings open.

A boy Kieren’s age with a subtle circlet resting on his golden hair edges into the room. His hesitant demeanor doesn’t look particularly regal, but the circlet and the gold-embroidered tunic he wears give away the fact that he is someone of importance.

“Um, okay, hi.” He pulls his ribbon wrapped ponytail over his shoulder, then flips it to his back again. He won’t meet Kieren’s eyes. “I’m Lukanos. But really, call me Luka.” He finally looks up at Kieren and his eyes widen. “Oh! Oh gods, let me get that rope off of you. I’m sorry no one did anything. I’ll have to say something to the staff,” he mutters. Luka runs towards Kieren and deftly undos the rope around Kieren’s wrists. Kieren finally gets to rub his sore hands as the boy watches with some horror on his face, probably because of the red welts that were originally hidden by the rope. “Oh, um, what’s your name?” Luka asks.

The bruises on Kieren’s ribs remind him to answer, “Whatever you want it to be, sir.”

Luka shifts between his feet and messes with his hair again. “I don’t— No, I want to call you whatever your actual name is. So, could you just tell me?”

Kieren hesitates, rubbing the marks on his wrists, and then subconsciously touches the gold collar that someone had put on him just before entering the room. Luka notices and winces. “I’m sorry,” he blurts. “I’m sorry that’s there. And I’m sorry about… all this, I guess. But, I swear I won’t do anything. To you. What’s your name? Please?”

“Kieren.”

“Kieren.” Luka tries it on his tongue. “That’s a nice name.” Luka smiles brightly at him.

Kieren is taken aback, and crosses his arms, pulling away from the other boy. “So, who are you? I mean, with the crown, I assume you’re someone important — royalty like a duke or something maybe— but you don’t… you don’t really act like it.”

Luka raises an eyebrow and he crosses his arms as well. “Oh? How so?”

Kieren bites his tongue briefly before deciding to let loose. “You’re quiet. You’re rather shy. You’re not very assertive. And, well, you’re very kind to me.”

Luka raises an eyebrow. “Hmm. You’re… daring.”

“I don’t think you’d really do anything bad to me,” Kieren says, though he balls up his fists and takes a step back, into a wider stance, just in case. “You would’ve done something already.”

“I wouldn’t. I swear. But… you really shouldn’t be that trusting of the others around here. They act more ‘royal’ than me, I guess you could put it. My big sister is okay, but she’s about it.”

“So you are royalty.”

Luka smirks and for the first time, he looks like the haughty, arrogant royal that Kieren has always envisioned. “Okay, let’s try this again, then. My name is Lukanos, First Son of King Oranos, High Prince of the Edeianos Kingdom, first in line to the throne, thus Crown Prince once I turn Of-Age.”

Kieren pales, uncrosses his arms, and bows his head slightly. “Oh. _Oh_. Um, Your Highness. I’m sorry. I didn’t —”

“Please don’t treat me any differently,” Luka groans, and he’s back to the young, soft boy that first entered the room. “It’s tiring honestly and I really don’t want you to be another person who treats me so carefully.”

“...Okay,” Kieren murmurs. “Whatever you say, I guess.”

+++

Kieren won’t look up at Luka and Luka is worried that he’s ruined things by telling him too soon that he was the prince. Luka fidgets for a moment as Kieren continues to stare at the floor and clutching his wrists. Luka sighs, “I’m sorry. Please don’t be uncomfortable. Um, let’s take a tour. I’ll show you around, well, not the whole castle because it’s far too large, I’ll show you the relevant places to you.”

“Okay, that’s reasonable,” Kieren says to the ground.

Luka presses his lips together briefly but begins. “Okay, this is your room. I know it’s pretty barren right now but if you want or need anything for it, just let me know. And you can of course put anything of yours on the walls or—”

“I don’t own anything,” Kieren quietly interjects.

Luka’s face heats up. “Oh. Well, if you want anything, just let me know,” he repeats, not knowing what else he could say. Kieren only nods.

Luka points to the simpler door of the two in the room. “That one leads right to a staircase down to the servants’ quarters and the kitchen.” He points to the slightly more ornate door opposite the first one.  “That one goes straight to my bedroom.” Luka pushes open the door and Kieren follows without a word. Luka bites at his lip nervously. What would Kieren think of him once he saw his room? Luka had never thought of his room as terribly opulent, especially compared to his parents’ grand bedroom and his sisters’ more personalized ones. But anything compared to Kieren’s dingy new room seemed magnificent. And Luka didn’t want to seem any more haughty than Kieren obviously already perceived him as.

“Okay, so this is my bedroom. Honestly, you can use whatever you want in here. Please, don’t be worried to, I don’t know, touch anything in here.” Luka watches as Kieren’s eyes widen, looking at the rich green canopied bed against one wall, and the velvet sofas arranged in front of the fireplace. Kieren wanders around the room, in small circles, looking upwards at the flags, royal crests, and decorative swords hung on the high walls.

“Are you… Are you okay?”

Kieren blinks quickly a few times and finally looks back to Luka. “Uh, yeah. Sorry, your room is pretty overwhelming. All this is pretty overwhelming.”

“Sure, of course.” Luka nods vigorously. “Let’s sit for a bit. I’ll send for food.” He feels Kieren’s eyes on his back as he goes to pull one of the cords hanging from the wall. There’s a barely audible bell ringing from the stairwell and moments later, there’s a knock on the door. Luka opens the door and in comes his usual waiting staff with plates of food and sets them on the low table in the middle of the sofas. Kieren follows every one of their movements with wide eyes.

Luka is already seated in an armchair with a cloth napkin tucked into his collar as he watches Kieren, still standing, thanking each of the servants. The servants are equally as wide-eyed as Kieren was, but stop to nod or curtsy slightly in front of him.

“You should… You can sit. If you want. And eat. Please.”

Kieren nods but pauses in front of the sofa, staring at the velvet that Luka never thought of as anything special. With a deep breath, Kieren nods, seemingly to himself, and sits daintily down on the sofa. He picks up a piece of unseasoned bread and nibbles at it.

“You can eat more. You can eat any of that you want.”

Kieren pauses eating, and shrugs. “It’s fine. I’m used to this.”

+++

There’s another knock at the door and Luka commands whoever it is to come in, and Kieren is even more intimidated than before with just the ornate decor everywhere in the room. A lean but well-muscled man with graying hair enters the room, with a huge broad-sword strapped to his back, and daggers on his hip.

“Your Highness.” The man takes a curt bow before continuing to the gaggle of sofas and taking a seat in the loveseat across from Luka and his armchair.

“Sir Arion.” Luka nods his head in acknowledgment. “I hope you’ve been well.”

“Very well, thank you. I understand I’ll be in charge of training your new guard?”

“Yes, this is Kieren.” Luka gestures to Kieren, sitting stiffly on the sofa, no knowing what to do with himself, or whether he’s allowed to even acknowledge the large, weapon-clad man near him. The man nods and smiles at him.

“Nice to meet you. Do you have any dueling experience, Kieren?”

“Um.” Kieren feels like if he says the wrong thing, the man with cleave his head off. “Well, I suppose I have. I’m pretty good with my fists. I fought a lot when I was, um, on the streets. And in the orphanage, I suppose.”

Arion nods thoughtfully, like he considered Kieren’s street experience valid. “Alright. That’s great because you probably have the instincts already to be a good fighter. We’ll get your trained with swords, of course, and a bow. We’ll work on dagger throwing as well. One of my fellow knights will work with you on detecting poisons and intruders, all the topics you’ll need to keep His Highness safe, of course.”

Kieren looks over, panicked and even more overwhelmed, at Luka. Luka is still sitting in his armchair, legs crossed and eyes almost glazed over, like the prospect of being poisoned or in danger of intruders was old news.

“We’ll get you with a tutor for the standard academic topics,” Sir Arion continues. “And an etiquette tutor since you may be attending some high-class events along with him.”

Kieren’s mind is buzzing. He never imagined he’d having proper fighting lessons, let alone proper academic lessons or whatever “etiquette” lessons entailed. He never imagined he’d be in charge of preventing the death of the second most important person in the kingdom.

+++

Luka wakes up in the middle of the night. First, he thinks that it’s because his room is so bright. He forgot to close the curtains and the moon is bright and full tonight. But then he realizes that it’s because he heard sniffling from behind the door leading to Kieren’s room.

“Uh, Kieren?” Luka knocks on the door.

The sniffling stops immediately. “Get away. I’m fine.”

Luka opens the door anyway. Kieren is slumped, sitting on the edge of his barren bed, his head in his hands. The mop of wavy black hair on top of his head flops over his fingers. He’s still in his dust colored tunic and Luka suddenly realizes he never gave or even offered him more clothes. He suddenly feels awful.

“I’m sorry.”

“Stop apologizing!” Kieren tears his face up from his hands. “You can’t do anything. And… I guess it’s not completely your fault. And you can’t do anything about it. So just stop. It just makes me feel bad and I haven’t even done anything wrong. And it makes you look weak. Aren’t you supposed to be the prince or something?”

“I’m so—”

Kieren glares at Luka, and Luka shuts his mouth. Kieren sighs and swings his legs onto his bed, lays down, and throws his arm over his eyes. “I really don’t want to talk to you anymore.”

Luka purses his lips but stays in the room. Kieren is right. He can’t do anything about it. He can’t do anything, really, even as the prince. But even knowing that about himself, he offers, “Well, I am the prince. What would you want me to do? One thing, you want to have happen.”

“I want my sister back,” Kieren says fiercely, moving his arm slightly so he can glare at Luka again. “I want you to get my sister back.”

Luka pales because there’s no way he could convince his father, a devout believer in the rigid slave trade system and the only one with power in this situation really, to hunt down someone who bought Kieren’s sister and demand her back. “Okay,” he tries to put on a front. “What’s her name?”

Kieren uncovers his face fully and sits up. The wonder in his eyes breaks Luka’s heart. “S-Sylven. Her name is Sylven, and she’s only ten.”

“Okay, well, I’ll try my best. It might take a while, because I’d need to convince my father, but I swear, I’ll do everything I can to find her and get her back.”

Kieren looks at Luka with gratitude and surprise, and Luka’s chest hurts from raising his hopes. “Thank you Luka,” he says with such sincerity, Luka’s heart shatters.


	2. Chapter 2

“Lukanos, you’ve asked me to assemble a team to find this girl for the past five birthdays. I’ve told you, not only is it hopeless to find the buyer of a slave girl five years ago, I refuse to deprive someone of their property that they rightfully purchased.”

Luka clenches and unclenches his fists and nods. He didn’t expect this meeting to go any differently than it is going, but he’d thought being nineteen and having his Of-Age ceremony tonight would make his father more likely to listen to him.

“Especially not as a favor for your slave,” his father continues. Luka nearly flinches at the word. He hates to think what he father would say at that sign of weakness. “Let me know when you have something you want that’s more tangible and reasonable. I’d be happy to get it for you.”

“Of course. Thank you, Father.” Luka nods curtly and turns to exit. Josina is waiting outside, her training armor still on. She smiles at Luka and ruffles his hair.

“Happy Of-Age, Luka! Congratulations. How was speaking with Father?”

He shrugs. “As it usually goes. Not terribly productive.” There’s a sheen of sweat on her face and her long ponytail is mussed. “Were you just sparring with Kieren?”

“Yes, he should be right behind me. Excuse me, I’m speaking with Father about training for the new soldiers. I probably won’t see you until tonight, since I’ll have to prepare for the ceremony but I’m excited. It’s going to be magnificent. Have you been by the ballroom yet? It’s so beautiful in there.”

“Yes, that sounds great. I’ll…” Luka sees Kieren standing at the end of the hallway. “Yes, I’ll talk to you… about that… later.”

Josina raises an eyebrow but says nothing, just steps around Luka to enter their Father’s office. Kieren’s training armor is off and he’s pulled his shirt off, wiping his face with it. The thin braid emerging out of his mop of hair is still neat and gathered, but his bangs are curled over and stuck to his forehead. His sheathed sword is still slung on his belt, low on his hips. He smiles when he spots Luka.

“Hey,” Kieren says, his breathing still heavy. “You know I almost beat Josina today?”

Luka raises an eyebrow. “Is that really the most important event of the day?”

Kieren grins brilliantly. “Hmm, I’m pretty sure it is. You do know how talented your sister is at dueling, right? It’s quite an achievement for me, a mere no one, to nearly defeat her.”

Luka shoves Kieren’s chest and he barely moves. Luka’s forgotten how much Kieren has grown recently, from being skinnier and shorter than Luka just a year ago to now being taller and broader. It’s both annoying and satisfying for Luka. He can’t tell which emotion he prefers to feel. “You dumbass. You’re not a no one.”

“That’s the part you’re upset about?” Kieren laughs. “You’re the dumbass.” Kieren shoves him back and Luka actually needs to step backwards to balance himself. He’s going to make an effort to train with Arion more.  “Of course I know. It’s your birthday. And not just that, it’s your Of-Age tonight.”

Luka smiles. “I asked my father to not do anything grand but of course he wouldn’t abide. And I suppose Of-Age is a bigger deal than any normal birthday anyway.” Kieren’s smile falters and Luka hastily adds, “I asked about Sylven first. Of course. And I know it’s the same every time but he won’t do it. But I swear, after the ceremony tonight, I’ll actually have some control over our troops and I’ll be able to assemble a team myself. I swear. Almost.”

A moment of pain passes over Kieren’s face before he nods and smiles again. “Sure. And just so you know, I’m not sure if I’ll be allowed in tonight. So if you don’t see me there—”

“Of course you’ll be there!” Luka retorts. “Who ever said you couldn’t?” Kieren unconsciously brushes the collar around his neck with his fingertips and Luka clenches his fists. “No, you’ll be allowed in. I’ll speak to the staff. I’ll speak to my father again if I have to.”

Kieren opens his mouth but Luka shushes him before he can make up another reason he feels he doesn’t deserve to attend. “Kier, you’ll be there.” The pet name slips out of his mouth inadvertently, but it seems to relax Kieren. His shoulders untighten slightly. “Well, you should go get cleaned up if you want to be there.” Kieren chuckles and gives a sarcastic salute before walking off towards the washroom. Luka watches the glisten of his sweat and sun-soaked skin leave.

+++

Kieren doesn’t know what to wear to an Of-Age ceremony. Not that he has many clothing options to choose from, but even if he did, he wouldn’t know. He’s never been to an Of-Age ceremony, let alone one for the crown prince. His own Of-Age came and went without notice, besides the kitchen staff giving him an extra serving and Luka singing quietly to him that night once the rest of the castle was asleep.

He gives up staring into his wardrobe and steps out into the hallway. Emelina happens to be right there, gathering some of her dolls she had spread out across the hall.

“Emelina! Hi there, it looks like you’re all ready for the ceremony tonight.” Her blonde curls have been woven through with flowers and she’s in a gauzy, light green dress. Whoever dressed her probably doesn’t know her well enough to know it’ll be torn from all her running around the castle, well before the celebrations tonight.

“Kieren!” she shrieks and flies into his arms, hugging him around his stomach. “I’m so excited. The ballroom looks so pretty. Nanny has been showing me pictures of some of the guests’ dresses. They’re so pretty.”

“Perfect, so you clearly are more of an expert in this than I am. Would you like to help me choose what to wear, Emmy? I have no clue.”

Her face brightens even more. “Yes! Of course! Let’s go!” She tugs Kieren back into his room via Luka’s bedroom and immediately turns toward his wardrobe with a wiser gaze than her years should really warrant. She easily chooses a deep blue tunic with silvery embroidery that Josina gave him years ago. Emelina also tosses black breeches and boots at him, before hiding and giggling in a corner as Kieren changes.She squeals as Kieren spins in place, showing off the outfit she chose and immediately beats him with small fists until he sits on his bed and lets her pull flowers out of her hair to tuck into his braid. Emelina probably isn’t even aware, but the tunic she’s chosen has a high enough neck to hide his collar and he’s more grateful than she’d ever know.

“Oh, you look so nice, Kieren!” Emelina hugs Kieren’s neck from behind and Kieren stands up with her still hanging on. She squeals again and Kieren grabs her tiny ankles, running out of the room and down the hall, all the way to the ballroom. Josina is already there, wearing a glittery gray pantsuit, and comes over. Emelina wiggles and Kieren lets her onto the ground. She wanders towards the florists doing their last-minute fluttering around the room.

“You look so lovely!” Josina smooths down the fabric on Kieren’s chest and tugs on the hem. “I knew you’d look great in this. I’m so glad you have a chance to wear it.”

“Yes, same here. Thank you for it again.” Kieren cranes his neck to look around Josina and around the room. “Um, is Luka here yet?”

“No, he’s still preparing. I don’t think you’ll have a chance to see him before the ceremony, but I’m sure he knows you’re thinking about him.” Josina raises an eyebrow, and Kieren has to resist the urge to look away and divert attention.

“Ah, I see. It’s fine. I wished him luck earlier.”

Josina pulls the collar of his tunic a little higher, this time, with some sadness in her eyes. “Come with me to welcome the guests. It’ll be nice for them to be welcomed with such a lovely face.”

+++

Luka is draped in heavy gold robes and sashes that fall to the floor. His old dainty circlet has been replaced by a more formidable crown, embedded with small jewels. Kieren doesn’t know what happened before the ceremony with the priests and the spirits of old kinds, but there’s a sigil on his forehead drawn with oil and ash. He carries a scepter in one hand, and a iridescent orb floats above his other palm. He is more regal than Kieren has ever seen him.

He looks like a king.

He reaches the front of the hall, after his long procession down the aisle, and kneels in front of his father, his mother, and the High Priestess.

“Prince Lukanos of Edeianos,” she begins. Her voice sends shivers through Kieren. It sounds otherworldly, vaguely like another language, yet he understands her perfectly. “You come before us today — your people, your ancestors, your family, and your kingdom — as a man of-age, prepared to ascend to your rightful place as heir to the throne of Edeianos. Do you accept the duties and responsibilities, spiritual and practical, as King-in-Line to this land?”

“I do,” Luka murmurs, though his voice reverberates throughout the hall.

“Do you accept the burdens and hardships of this land and its people, spiritual and practical?”

“I do.”

“Do you accept the vow to place the land and its people first in your heart and spirit?”

“I-I do.”

“People of Edeianos, common and noble-persons alike, do you accept Prince Lukanos, First Son of Oranos, as your Crown Prince and King-in-Line?”

A resounding “I do” echos through the hall, sounded by the nobles invited and the commoners lucky enough to have crowded at the castle gates early enough to gain entrance.

“I hear your acceptance,” the priestess calls into the crowd. “Thus, with the permission of your ancestors, your land, and your people, I pronounce you Crown Prince Lukanos, first King-in-Line of the Kingdom of Edeianos.”

Luka rises as the crowds cheer. The priestess blows the ash gently off his forehead and the oil insignia glows brightly for a moment before seeming to sink into Luka’s skin. The priestess smiles down at Luka and kisses his cheeks.

“Please join us,” King Oranos booms, rising from his throne. “To celebrate the Of-Age of my son and our new Crown Prince in our ballroom.”

As the crowds push towards the exit and to the ballroom, Kieren manages to catch Luka’s eye. Luka smiles at him, though his gaze now seems wiser and deeper than it had before.

+++

A presence slides next to Kieren, and a glance at the burgundy sheath at his hip tells Kieren its Sir Arion. Even when Kieren looks up at him, he stares resolutely forward.

“You must know, Kieren, that His Highness Lukanos is no longer just yours.”

Kieren stiffens. “Sir, if you’ll forgive me for contradicting, he was never ‘just mine.’ I’m afraid I’m not sure what you speak of.”

It is then that Arion looks down into Kieren’s eyes, steely and serious. “He is contractually, legally, and spiritually the Kingdom’s. He is the people’s. And you’d do well not to forget that. He has ascended to a position and to responsibilities that we will never comprehend.”

Kieren swallows and nods. Out of the corner of his eye, he sees Luka chatting with nobles, stately and proud, while also holding hands with Emelina, sweet and doting. He sees both sides of Luka and it takes more willpower than he’d like to admit not to swing his entire gaze towards him, lest Arion notice. But Arion sighs anyway and Kieren’s cheeks warm. He should’ve known nothing would slip past the knight.

Someone claps him on the shoulder. “And even if that wasn’t the case, he’d never want someone like you anyway, Kieren!” The newcomer flicks at the bit of gold collar peeking out from under his tunic. Kieren’s face burns with shame at the same time he groans.

“Bader, no one needs your opinion here,” Kieren snarls, pushing Bader’s hand off his shoulder.

Arion is frowning as well. “Sir Bader, _you_ would do well not to listen in on private conversations. And to not shame others for things out of their control.”

Bader shrugs with a grin. Arion continues to frown at Bader but nods politely at Kieren before drifting off into the crowds, and probably towards the food. Bader’s grin turns devilish as soon as Arion’s back is turned.

“Slave, you really think you could ever be with Lukanos?” he sneers into Kieren’s face. “You can barely even fit in here. You try to hide it, but they can all see. They can all see right past your facade. You don’t belong here and you know it. You don’t belong with Luka.”

“It’s ‘Your Highness’ to you,” Kieren snarls out through gritted teeth. “How dare you.”

“It never should have been you who got to be so close with him. He should’ve chosen one of us, rather than go out and pick some worthless slave.” Based leans in even closer. “He’s beautiful, all golden hair and marble skin. I bet his ass is tight and gorgeous. Wouldn’t you like to get a piece of that? It’s not just you who notices. Don’t you see all the suitors surrounding him?” Of course Kieren does. They’re all touching him, in one way or another and he hates it. “You’ll never be one of them.”

With that, a cheery smile is pasted back onto Bader’s face, before he waves at Kieren and makes a beeline for Luka, who turns around as Bader places a hand on the small of his back. He pulls Luka towards the center of the ballroom, where pairs are dancing, and Luka catches Kieren’s eyes with panic. He pulls a grotesque face while pointing subtly at Bader and it pulls a chuckle out of Kieren. Luka’s eyes soften, but it’s not enough for Kieren to leave his shameful post against the wall of the ballroom to join the rest of the decadently clad people in celebration.

+++

“I can’t believe you left!”

It’s past midnight and Kieren looks up from the fire he’s lit in Luka’s fireplace. There’s a bottle of alcohol loose in his hand that he vaguely remembers sneaking from the ballroom, but does not clearly remember drinking most of. Luka is standing in the doorway, still in his ceremonial clothes, face flushed, teetering on his feet. Kieren smiles, in spite of himself, and goes to help Luka settle down onto the sofa, where he promptly rips off most of the layers of his fancy robes, half of which are stained with wine, leaving him with his plain undershirt and breeches.

“And left me with Bader, of all people!” He groans, laying down on his side now. “Gods, what an arrogant, annoying person he is. I cannot believe we let him become a knight. He wouldn’t leave my side and all he wanted to talk about was himself. I cannot believe you left me, and with him, Kier! On my Of-Age birthday!”

“Mm, I’m sorry about that, Your Highness.”

Luka sits up, his eyes suddenly clearer. “‘Your Highness’? What… What brought this about? Have you _ever_ called me Your Highness before?”

Kieren bites his lip, unsure of how much to confess to Luka. “Sir Arion said—”

Luka groans. “Sir Arion told me the same thing before the ceremony started. About how I now belong to the Kingdom and the people and my royal duties. Like I wanted any of that. I don’t care. I mean, I’ll do my best, because I do care about the people and the wellbeing of Edeianos. But really, all I wanted— all I want, is to be y—” He stops abruptly.

Kieren’s heart catches in his throat. “W-What did you say?”

Luka buries his face in his hands. Kieren can’t tell if Luka is flushing from the alcohol, embarrassment, or just the fire reflecting on his skin. “I don’t… it’s just…” he starts, sliding gradually from the sofa to the floor. He leans towards Kieren, peeking out from behind his fingers. Kieren can’t breathe. “All I want to do is be with you. Always. All the time. I don’t want to be the Kingdom’s, or Bader’s, or anyone else’s. I just want to be yours. Gods, I just want—” Luka doesn’t finish his sentence, just groans and leans forward, holding Kieren behind the neck, and kisses him.

It takes Kieren a moment to catch up with what is happening. Luka’s mouth is plush and hot, and once his mind has caught up, a possessive streak flares in his belly. He grabs Luka around the waist and hoists him into his lap. Now straddling Kieren, Luka moans into Kieren’s mouth, a soft, needy sound. A hardness in his breeches rubs against a similar one in Kieren’s pants. Kieren palms Luka’s erection through the fabric and Luka breathily yelps.

“Kier. Oh my gods. Kier, I—” Suddenly, Luka tears away from Kieren’s face to dry heave. “Oh gods, I’m sorry. I’m little… Just a little nauseous. I’m sorry. Give me… Give me just a moment.”

It’s then that Kieren tastes the liquor on both their tongues and smells the alcohol on Luka’s skin. He all but throws Luka off of him. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” Kieren gasps, standing up and backing away. “I, uh, Your Highness. I should help you get to bed.

“W-What?” Luka looks so debauched and vulnerable, still laying on the ground that it takes all of Kieren’s willpower not to dive back down to kiss him. “I… Okay, I guess. That’s fine. I-I’m tired a-anyway,” Luka yawns through his sentence. Kieren can’t tell if it’s real or a way to hide the tears sparkling at the corners of Luka’s eyes.

Kieren guides Luka over to his bed and unlaces his shirt without a word. Luka pulls off his breeches silently as well, and by the time he’s in his underwear and tucked under his blankets, he’s nearly asleep. So Kieren feels safe enough to kiss his forehead lightly.

“Goodnight Luka.”

Luka rolls onto his side and murmurs, a little sadly, “G’night Kier.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> oops i'm bad at writing slow burn sorry


	3. Chapter 3

Usually it’s the bright moonlight streaming into his room that wakes Kieren up, but he opens his eyes and the dark night sky only has a sliver of the moon in it. His neck hurts. He hadn’t realized he’d fallen asleep at his desk, still in his dress tunic and his hand sticky, his cock peeking out from over the band of his pants. He flushes and hastily wipes his hand on a loose cloth hanging over the back of his chair. It may have been the crick in his neck that woke him up but a sudden muffled yelp from Luka’s bedroom seems more likely to be the cause. 

“Kieren! Kieren, h— mmf!”

“Luka?” Kieren calls. There’s no response. Kieren jumps up and grabs the dagger under his pillow, heart pounding, and speeds into Luka’s room. “Luka!”

Luka is on the ground, arms pulled harshly behind his back, being tied with rope by a figure in a beaked mask. He’s snarling and thrashing. He almost gets to his feet before another masked figure wrestles him back down and wedges a piece of cloth into his mouth. The moonlight hits the figures perfectly for a moment for Kieren to see that they are all wearing capes of black feathers.

“Get off of him!” Kieren lunges, dagger grasped in his hand. Another beaked person emerges out of the shadows with daggers in both fists and spars with Kieren, matching him equally. Kieren manages to grab the sword hanging on the wall next to Luka’s bed and is more able to parry all of his opponents attacks, when another figure jumps into the fight.

“Who are you?” Kieren yells. They make no sound, not even gasps of air. It’s him versus three of them now. Kieren manages to parry them, though there’s a cut in his arm, his nose is bleeding from an elbow to his face, and he’s out of breath. He doesn’t notice where his feet are being placed and manages to trip over Luka, who screams, even with the gag in his mouth. First, Kieren thinks it’s because he kicked Luka accidentally but he rolls over to see that one of the masked figures holding a dagger had fallen with him, and in the process sliced from Luka’s forehead to his jaw, across his left eye.

The scream must have been loud enough to alert the guards outside in the hallway because there’s a thundering of footsteps that cause all the feathered figures to look up and dash to the open window at the end of the room, and jumping out one after the other.

“Luka, Luka, oh my gods, Luka.” Kieren stumbles over to Luka and pulls the cloth out of his mouth. Luka is still screaming. Kieren tries to untie Luka’s wrists but his hand are shaking so badly. And they’re slippery with, he just now realizes, Luka’s blood. “I got you, I got you Luka. Oh my gods. Luka, I’m sorry, I—”

Kieren is suddenly ripped away from Luka’s side with a scream of his own. Rough hands hold his wrists high on his back, too high to be comfortable and another hand on his throat forces his head backwards. “What have you done to His Highness?!”

“Nothing! Nothing! I swear, oh my gods, no, let me— Luka, is he okay?” As his head is forced backwards, he can only see a little out of the corner of his eye that soldiers are finishing the untying of the ropes around Luka’s arms. Luka’s screaming has stopped and his pliant figure in the arms of the soldiers tells Kieren that he’s passed out. “Please, let me see Luka,” he yells, as he feels shackles clapped onto his wrists. “I didn’t do anything. I swear, I didn’t—”

“What is the meaning of this?” King Oranos storms into the room. Queen Daelina hurries in behind him. “What has happened to my boy?” The two of them see Luka’s limp body and his bloody face at the same time. The queen shrieks and dives to the ground next to her son, brushing his hair anxiously out of his wounded face. The king immediately turns his attention to Kieren, who’s been forced onto his knees, his hands still bound behind his back. “Did this slave do this to him?” The king yanks Kieren’s head up by his hair. “Slave, what did you do to my son?”

“Sir, Your Majesty, I swear I did not.” Blood runs into Kieren’s mouth and he needs to gasp just to get any air into his lungs. “Sir, I would protect His Highness with my life. I would never—”

“Your Majesty, he was the only one in here when we entered,” a familiar voice says. Kieren turns his head as much as he can to see Bader standing there. “And the only weapon we’ve found is his dagger. No one else would have had access to this room.”

“The window, sir, the window is open. That’s where they came in from.”

“‘They’?” Bader sneers. “Are you telling me that an entire group of assailants entered without you or any of us guards noticing? Slave, this story of yours seems implausible.”

“No, I swear. A group of them. Five. In raven masks and capes.”

Bader laughs out loud at this. “Your Majesty, are you really going to believe this slave? That a gang of bird men came in through the window to attack your son. This is idiotic.”

The king nods. “I agree with Sir Bader. You are a disgrace to us all, slave. I must attend to my son.” A pair of soldiers are carrying Luka out of the room, his mother following closely. “Throw him in the cells. I’ll decide what to do with him once my son is awake.”

“No, Your Majesty, I swear—”

“Sir Bader, I’ll put you in charge of assembling a team to guard him. Round the clock. Maximum security, you understand?”

“Of course, Your Majesty.” Bader bows deeply to the king who sweeps out of the room behind Luka. He then turns and smirks at Kieren. “Oh Kieren. Look what you’ve gotten yourself into.” 

“Bader! You bastard!” Kieren lunges at Bader, only to be stopped by a baton across his throat. The guard behind him pulls the baton towards his torso, choking Kieren. “You fucking liar,” Kieren manages to gasp out. “You didn’t even investigate. You don’t give a shit about Luka.”

Bader shrugs. “Why should I need to? Luka is now a survivor. If he’d died, he’d be a martyr. Either way, I come out on top. And you? You sink to the level of dirt that you are, slave.”

Kieren’s eyes widen. “Did you do this? Did you orchestrate this?”

“Of course not!” Bader laughs. “You think I’m idiotic enough to plan an attack on the Crown Prince? On the night of his Of-Age ceremony? No, I’m just a lucky man in a lucky position. Quite the opposite of you I might say.”

A leather gag is pushed into Kieren’s mouth and a piece of cloth tied over his eyes before shackles are also attached to his ankles, which make it so that he can only stumble and be dragged along as Bader and his fellow guard exit the room.

Kieren had never been down to the dungeons before, but from how long the walk took, it seems like it is far from the center of the castle. He hears groans and cries for mercy as he is dragged along. The bottom of his bare feet feel bloody from the rough stone that lines the ground here. He expects to stop once the moans of the other prisoners grow loudest, but instead he hears a door creak open and the other noises muffled. He’s thrown to the ground and he cries out as the right side of his face scrapes along the ground, his limbs in no position to catch himself.

The blindfold is ripped off of his face and Kieren’s eyes dart around. It looks almost like an office, except there are no windows, and there’s a cell and shackles are along one of the walls. He must look confused because Bader chuckles and pulls his face up by his chin before asking, “You think we’d throw you in with the rest of the common criminals? No, no, you’re special cargo. But maybe we’ll throw you to those wolves once we’re done with you. They’d love a palace insider to rip apart.”

“You are such a bastard,” Kieren snarls through gritted teeth. “Once I get out of here, I’m going to make sure you never spend another day on these grounds, you bastard.”

“Oh, slave.” Bader shakes his head as if disappointed. “Even if you did get out alive, how do you think you’d ever be in a position to make those kinds of decisions?” With another gesture, a gaggle of guards come over, all ones Kieren has seen hang around Bader and hang on to his every word. “Strip him,” Bader commands. “I’ll need to make sure he’s not hiding any weapons.”

The leather bit is stuffed back into Kieren’s mouth, muffling any protest, as the guards come at him with scissors and knives, tearing apart the lovely blue tunic Josina had gifted him. Then again, it’s so drenched in Luka’s blood that Kieren is almost happy it’s destroyed. His pants are cut away from his legs too and pulled out from under his cuffs. The guards aren’t careful with Kieren’s skin and there’s more cuts all over his body than necessary.

“Thank you men,” Bader says. “Now, I’d like some time alone with our newest criminal.”

“But Bader,” one of them starts. “You promised—”

“Later!” Bader snarls. “I know what I promised. I’d like some alone time with the slave here first. You understand?” The men nod before exiting the room. Bader follows them and bolts the door once they finish exiting. Bader then circles Kieren, who’s now naked and shivering on the stone floor. “You know, slave,” he starts. “I honestly did not plan any of this. But really, this has worked out completely to my advantage. You don’t know how much I’ve wanted this, a chance to do whatever I want to your arrogant, undeserving ass.”

Bader waves his arm around, gesturing to the room around him. “You probably don’t know but I didn’t just choose a random room to throw you into. His Majesty didn’t just randomly choose me to assemble a guard for you. I oversee the dungeons. This is my private room — an office, I guess, in rather loose terms — and whatever I do to you in here, no one will ever know.”

Bader drags Kieren over to the cell by his hair and clips the shackles on his wrists to a rung on the wall, high enough so that Kieren can’t exactly kneel, but if he stands, the cell is so narrow he has to bend at the waist and his ass would be pressed right against the bars. Kieren decides to stand, even at the cost of his dignity, to relieve his scraped and bloody knees.

A cold metal bar slips between Kieren’s ass cheeks and he whimpers, which makes Bader laugh. “Oh my, you’re a slave  _ and  _ a slut, aren’t you? And to think you weren’t even sold as a pleasure slave, were you?” Bader slips the gag out of Kieren’s mouth and before he backs away, Kieren manages to spit in his face, a mixture of blood and saliva.

“Fuck you, Bader. You’re evil. You’re pure evil.”

Bader just laughs again and wipes Kieren’s spit from his face onto Kieren’s ass. “No, you’re the evil one. You’re the one who’s locked up here for harming our precious Crown Prince. You couldn’t even help your precious Luka. How pitiful. He’s hurting because of you.”

“Shut up,” Kieren grits out, though tears prickle at his eyes.

Bader does indeed shut up. Instead, he hums to himself as he pets Kieren’s ass crack with calloused fingers. Kieren shivers inadvertently. “A shame you are not as pretty as sweet Luka.”

“Your. Highness. To. You,” Kieren growls. Bader ignores him, continuing to rub Kieren’s ass, then slipping a blindfold back over Kieren’s eyes.

“What I would give to have sweet Luka spread out like this before me,” Bader murmurs right into Kieren’s ear. His finger starts to press against Kieren’s asshole. “His smooth ass out and begging me to fuck him.”

“Shut up,” Kieren says again, but with less bite. “Shut up. He would never. He would never stoop that low.”

“Oh, Kieren, don’t tell me you don’t fantasize about that too. I saw the white stains on your breeches earlier. I know what you’ve done.” Kieren’s face burns. “If he’d stoop so low as to fuck a slave like you, he’d probably let me stick it up his ass too, eh?” Kieren would’ve retorted something but at that moment, Bader pushes his finger into his ass and it takes all of Kieren’s breath and willpower not to yelp in surprise and pain.

“No sound? Hmm, you must be used to something larger then. What a slut.”

“No, Bader, I haven’t— I— Stop, Bader. Just stop,” Kieren says breathlessly. Bader just inserts another finger as he starts to feather his fingers over Kieren’s cock. A corner of Bader’s mouth quirks up.

“Kieren! Don’t tell me you’re a virgin, with Luka laying just a wall away from you for all these years!” Bader promptly scissors his fingers apart, causing Kieren to yelp. “That is so precious of you. Really. You’re an innocent little slut.” His fingers push back in deeply into a spot that makes Kieren scream and see stars. Bader won’t stop laughing, or touching his cock.

“Y-You can’t do anything to me,” Kieren manages to stutter out. “Luka will wake up soon. He’ll be up by tomorrow and hell will fucking rain down on you if you do anything to me.”

Bader snorts. “My gods, you do overestimate how much you’re worth to Luka, don’t you? He’s the prince. You’re just a slave. He can pick up another one of you anyday.”

“You fucker. He will come for you if you do anything to me,” Kieren yells. He can’t tell if he’s saying that to threaten Bader or to reassure himself. “He will end you.”

Bader shakes his head and laughs. “Even if he will, there are plenty of ways to hurt you without leaving a mark, silly Kieren.” The blindfold is taken off once again, and Kieren cranes his head to see Bader opening one of the drawers next to his desk, taking out a series of wooden, phallic shapes, ranging from ones about the size of his finger to one maybe as large as his forearm.

Fear and panic trickles through Kieren’s bloodstream, running cold. “No, no, Bader, no. Don’t do this.” Kieren thrashes in his shackles. “Bader, Bader, please.”

“Oh, it’s okay. I’ll be easy on you. I promise, this is a favor, really. This is just preparing you for what’s to come. It’ll get worse, I promise. You really should be thanking me for this.” After a moment of deliberation, Bader picks up the second to smallest one, the same width as his two fingers but longer. He smears some oil from his lantern onto it before approaching Kieren.

“Bader, you don’t have to do this,” Kieren says, as a last ditch attempt to save himself from pain and humiliation.

“Oh, I know. I’ve just wanted to ever since you were chosen over one of us as Luka’s guard. To buy the prince a pleasure slave, sure. But to buy him one as a guard, when there is such a pool of talented knights to choose from. Unforgivable.” Bader pushes Kieren’s face against the rough wall, so his ass is away enough from the bars of the cell so that Bader can slide the wooden phallus in all the way to its base. Kieren screams this time. The wood reaches further inside him that Bader could with his fingers, and it’s more rigid and unforgiving. Bader lets go of Kieren’s face, causing him to fall backwards, back onto the metal bar which now slams the phallus even deeper inside him. Kieren howls, and pushes himself towards the wall, away from the bars.

“I don’t think so,” Bader says sing-song, as he ties Kieren’s thighs to the bars, forcing him to stay in place. Any small movement from Kieren moves the phallus as well and pushes out a small cry from Kieren. “You’re very loud,” Bader comments, as Kieren gasps, just from trying to get some air into his lungs. “I can’t have the other prisoners think there’s something out of the ordinary going on.” Bader meanders back to his desk, picking up each phallus in turn.

“I can stay quiet,” Kieren gasps. “Bader, I can stay quiet. You don’t need to—”

“It’ll be good practice, Kieren.” Bader chooses a sizeable one, weighs it in his hand before coming back to the cell and wrenching Kieren’s jaw open. Kieren manages to bite Bader’s finger, but Bader only flinches a little before laughing and pushing the phallus in Kieren’s ass hard. As Kieren yelps, he shoves the polished piece of wood into Kieren’s mouth.

It’s heavy and dense, and Kieren chokes, both on the phallus and on the fear that he won’t be able to breathe. His eyes water and he hates that a tear trickles down his cheek and that Bader is there to see it. Bader simply smirks and ties a cloth around Kieren’s mouth, keeping the wood in place.

Bader strokes Kieren’s throat in a gesture of fake tenderness. “Well, I have to be awake early tomorrow morning, to stop in and check on our sweet Luka. I must turn in. You have a good night as well, eh Kieren?” Kieren’s eyes widen and he tries to thrash, to lunge at Bader before he remembers the phallus in his ass which knocks against the metal bars and sends shocks through his body. Bader laughs, throws the blindfold back over Kieren’s eyes and pats his ass once more before shutting the cell door behind him.


	4. Chapter 4

When Luka wakes up he can’t speak, nor see out of one of his eyes. In panic, he thrashes but everything hurts and he falls back onto his pillow, groaning. Then he realizes it’s not his pillow. Then he realizes he can’t speak because bandages cover the entire left side of his face, including his jaw and mouth.

“Oh! Your Highness! Please relax and lay back. We’ve numbed most of your injuries but we wouldn’t want you to open up any of your wounds again.” A nurse hurries over to his side and flutters her fingers over the bandages on his face. He tries to open his mouth to speak again, but the nurse shushes him and hands him a piece of paper and pen instead.

_ Where am I?  _ He scrawls, using his chest as a surface.

“The palace infirmary. Goodness, you’re lucky to have never been in here before,” she chuckles. “It seems like we see Her Highness little Emmelina every other day for some cut or scrape.”

_ What happened? _

“Oh goodness.” The nurse wrings her hands. “Well, I wasn’t there. I’ve only heard bits and pieces, so perhaps I should get someone else if Your Highness wants a fuller story.”

_ It’s fine,  _ Luka scribbles.  _ Tell me what you know. _

“Well, as far as I know, Your Highness was attacked in your room four nights ago—”

_ I’ve been asleep for 4 days?! _

“Yes, Your Highness. It’s perfectly fine and normal. We put you under with a sleeping draught for the last two days since for the first two days you were feverish and recovering rather poorly. You did regain consciousness a few times though it was only for brief moments. Resting has definitely helped your recovery. You were attacked quite violently so—”

_ I don’t remember.  _

“The moments when you woke up? That’s perfectly normal. Most of the time—”

_ The attack. _

“Oh.” This gives the nurse pause. “Oh, alright. Not to worry Your Highness. Just… Give me a moment.” She grabs a piece of paper off of the table next to his bed and writes something down on it. “Okay, Your Highness, not to worry. I’ll let the physicians know, in case they decide they need to change your diagnosis and your treatment. Um, shall I continue?”

Luka nods as vigorously as he can with his bandages on.

“Yes, so Your Highness was attacked in your room and there was a ruckus so the guards stationed in the hall outside the room ran in. At that point, Your Highness’s face was already injured and I believe Your Highness had already fallen unconscious. There was only one person in the room with you when they entered and he had a weapon, so I think they must have taken him to the dungeons.” Luka’s eyes widen and he moves so quickly for his paper and pen that the nurse has to hold him down. “Don’t move so quickly please Your Highness! And please don’t worry. I’m sure they’ll take care of your attacker quickly and justly.”

Luka shakes his head and reaches again for his paper and pen. The nurse hands it to him.

_ Who was it? The man they took.  _ There couldn’t have been anyone else other than Kieren in his room besides the assailants. And if there were attackers, then why didn’t the nurse mention Kieren, who must have been in his bedroom also? Why isn’t Kieren laying in the bed in the infirmary beside him?

The nurse shakes her head. “I’m sorry Your Highness. I don’t know. You’ll have to ask one of the knights who were there. I think they’d be the only ones to know. Or perhaps His or Her Majesty.”

As if on cue, Luka’s mother enters into the room in a swirl of skirts and lace. When his mother sees that Luka is awake, she almost runs over the curtseying nurse to get to Luka’s bedside.

“Lukanos, my dear heart!” She clutches Luka’s hand as the nurse scurries around, fetching a chair and a glass of water for the queen. “I’m so glad to see you finally awake. I can’t begin to tell you how worried I was. When they found you, you had so much blood all over you, my gods. It was horrible.” His mother has Luka’s dominant hand clutched to her cheek, so Luka can’t even grasp the pen and paper to ask about who was captured. “I’ll have to tell your father that you’re awake. He was in here earlier but had to leave for a meeting. He’ll desperately want to see you after he’s finished.”

+++

Kieren’s jaw aches so badly he can hardly close it. Bader had come in for the past three mornings to fuck his mouth, and when Bader wasn’t using it, it was another one of the guards or it was tied shut with the wooden phallus in it. His binds have been changed so that his arms are outstretched across the wall and his face is facing out, allowing Bader and his friends to come into the cell. The other phallus hasn’t come out of his ass, and Bader reminds him of that every morning by sticking a finger in alongside it.

Bader comes into the room for the second time today and Kieren shivers, closing his eyes, and resigning himself to another round. But instead, Bader comes into the cell with a pair of pants and harshly pulls them onto Kieren’s legs.

“Today’s a big day,” Bader sings. “The king is coming down to visit you in just a moment. Now, there’s a few things you’ll need to tell him. First, of course he must know that no harm has come to you.” Bader taps against Kieren’s now clothed asshole. “He mustn't know about this, hmm. You understand? Second, you’re supposed to be in a regular cell, not here. So you see these?” Bader shows various cuts on his fingers to Kieren and points out a cut on his face. “You did these to me. That’s why I have you under such lock and key.”

“You’re a liar,” Kieren slurs, not managing to get his mouth and tongue to work exactly right. “You’re going to fucking lie to the king.”

Bader shrugs. “We all do what we must.”

“I won’t. What makes you think,” Kieren has to take a moment to swallow the saliva and phlegm built up in his mouth. “I’d lie to the king? Especially when it makes me look like the bad one?”

Bader taps the phallus in Kieren’s ass as he winks and rummages in his coat pocket. He pulls out one of the larger wooden phalluses, larger than even his own cock. Kieren starts to shake. “I control what goes in you,” Bader murmurs. “That should be reason enough to listen to me, shouldn’t it? Or there’s a known rapist, right in the cell across from us. I’m sure he’d like a cellmate, don’t you think?” Bader has to physically hold Kieren against the wall, his muscles are spasming so violently from fear. “So, do you think you can lie, just a little, for me?”

“Yes, fine, I-I’ll do it,” Kieren mutters to the ground. He hates that he’s almost grateful to Bader for not choosing one of the phalluses as large as his forearm to threaten Kieren with.

“Lovely.” Bader slaps Kieren’s face lightly before locking the cell door and going out into the hallway of the dungeon. It isn’t long before Kieren hears him returning, his time with another set of footsteps following.

“Explain to me why he isn’t being kept in these cells, with the common criminals,” King Oronos’ voice reverberates down the hall.

“Well, Your Majesty, he really isn’t a common criminal. He attacked our Crown Prince. And even without that, look at these.” He must been showing the king his fabricated wounds. “He tried to attack me. I felt that restraining him privately was the best course of action.”

Kieren sees the king nod as they round the corner into the doorway of the office. “Of course. I trust your judgment Sir Bader. And you’re right in that we know he’s violent on another level than these other prisoners.”

The king walks right up to the bars of the cage. “Sir Bader, please give me and the slave a moment alone.”

“Of course Your Majesty,” Bader says. “I’ll be right outside if you need anything.” He exits and shuts the door behind him. Once Bader leaves, the king sits back on his haunches to be level with Kieren.

“Slave, I never really liked you, from the moment we saw you at that slave dealer’s. I never understood my son’s infatuation with you. And it’s always a good feeling to be right. I just wish that it didn’t have to come to my son being hurt to be right.”

“Your Majesty,” Kieren manages to mumble.

“My gods, you can’t even speak properly. After all the years of education we’ve provided you.”

“Please, Your Majesty,” Kieren speaks slowly, trying to get every sound out of his mouth clearly. “I swear, on my life, I did not attack Lukanos.”

“I hear differently. I hear you’ve also attacked Sir Bader. How am I supposed to trust that you were not Lukanos’ assailant when you’ve also attacked a knight?”

With Bader out of the room, Kieren feels daring enough to try an attempt at outing Bader to the king. “Your Majesty, Sir Bader lies to you. I did not attack him. I’ve been bound since we left Lukanos’ room. There is no way—”

“Sir Bader has the marks to prove it!” King Oranos roars. “You’re to tell me one of my most trusted knights is lying, directly to my face?”

“N-No, Your Majesty, I—”

“Then you mean to say you’ve just lied to me?”

Kieren’s blood runs cold. “Your Majesty, please, I—”

There is an urgent knock on the door and King Oranos sneers at Kieren before calling for whomever it is to come in. It’s Bader, and his face is paler than usual. “Your Majesty, I, uh, one of the medics from the infirmary just came by and asked me to pass on the message to you that His Highness Prince Lukanos has woken up.”

“Luka is awake?” Kieren rasps out, pulling on his chains. “You can ask him. He’ll tell you it was not me who attacked him. I swear. He’ll tell you.” Bader blanches just a little bit more.

The king immediately stands and strides towards the doorway. “Thank you Sir Bader. I will let you know soon what Lukanos tells me and what we will be doing with the slave. In the meantime, do be careful with him. He lied, right to my face.”

Bader’s eyes flash with anger as he glances towards Kieren. Fear courses through Kieren and he starts shaking in his binds again. “I told you, Your Majesty, he is not to be trusted,” Bader says. “Please, if you don’t mind me asking, what lies did he tell you?”

“He claimed to not have attacked you, but you clearly bear the marks of an attack. Once again, Sir Bader, I trust you and your judgment. Punish him as you see fit, for attacking you and lying to the face of his king.”

“Of course, Your Majesty. I will, gladly.” Bader turns and smiles gleefully at Kieren.

+++

“My son, I’m so glad to see you finally awake.” Luka turns his head to see his father striding in, His mother slides her seat over to make room for him at Luka’s bedside. As he gets closer and sees Luka’s bandages more closely, he starts to frown. “Do they know what the permanent injuries will be yet?”

The queen shakes her head. “Not until after the bandages come off. But with this new ointment they have and the recovery effects of the sleeping draught, the bandages should be ready to come off in just another two to three days.”

The king nods in approval before placing a gentle hand on his wife’s shoulder. “Dalina, do you mind if Lukanos and I have a moment alone?” The queen nods, and caresses Luka’s face one more time before gliding out of the infirmary as elegantly as she came in.

“Can you speak, son?”

Luka shakes his head and points at the paper and pen lying on his chest. His father’s mouth tightens even more. When he tries to smile at Luka, it doesn’t reach his eyes and comes off as far more terrifying than comforting.

_ Who’s the man they have in the dungeons?  _ Luka writes.  _ Mother wouldn’t tell me. _

“The slave, Kieren,” his father says, without preamble.

Luka sits up immediately. His chest hurts horribly but it doesn’t matter. He lunges forward to clutch at his father’s robes. “No, no,” he manages to mumble out past his bandages. “Not. Him.”

“Then who is it? Just say who it is and this will all be over. Your slave can go free.”

Luka squeezes his eyes shut, trying to recall that night, trying to remember what happened. But it’s all just a mess of darkness, pain, and for whatever reason, birds.  _ I don’t know,  _ he scrawls onto the paper.  _ I can’t remember that night.  _ Kieren’s freedom is in his hands and he can’t do anything about it. Luka falls back onto his pillows, tears prickling in his eyes.

“So it could be your slave.”

Luka shakes his head violently.  _ No no no,  _ he writes.  _ Can’t be.  _

“You do not know for sure, Lukanos! And all of the evidence we have points to him. He was the sole person in the room besides you. His dagger was the only weapon in the room that wasn’t mounted to the walls. He even attacked Sir Bader and lied to me. He’s proven himself over and over to be violent and untrustworthy.”

Luka keeps shaking his head, full tears leaking out of his eyes now. His father shushes him and pushes his matted hair out of his face. “Oh Lukanos. Don’t cry over a slave. Besides, he’ll be dead within the end of the week.”

This time, Luka fully lunges towards his father, grabbing his collar fiercely, his muscles buzzing after days of disuse. “What do you mean,  _ dead? _ ” he yells out, bandages be damned. The wound on his face opens. Hot blood pools under his bandages, and nurses immediately swarm, pushing him back onto the bed.

“I’m calling for execution,” his father announces, standing up swiftly. Before Luka can act, the nurses have poured something into the side of his mouth and Luka’s eyes grow heavy. “Don’t worry. It won’t be before you’re conscious again so you can bid farewell to your slave. I promise, right after I’ll take you right to the dealer and we can get you a new one. A more obedient and less traitorous one perhaps.”

Snarling at his father and sobbing hopelessly are the last things Luka remembers before sinking back into unconsciousness.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just made a tumblr specifically for this story and additional like writing inspo etc so please come visit and talk to me at blackmatterwriting.tumblr.com !

When Luka comes to, it’s another day later and the bandages around his mouth are able to be removed, though his eye is still covered with gauze. He immediately asks for Josina who appears in the infirmary straightaway, her mouth pressed into an uncharacteristic grimace. She wears her thin armor and her sword swings at her hip, even though it doesn’t look like she’s been training. The stiff way she stands makes it seem like she’s ready for danger or to fight at any moment.

“Emmy misses you terribly,” she says, though her sentence doesn’t match her serious expression.

“I do too but don't let her see me like this. Wait until the bandages are all off and I stop bleeding out of the blue,” Luka chuckles but Josina’s face remains stoic. Luka matches her expression quickly. Her fingers tap idly on the handle of her sword.

“Josina, I’m sure you know about—”

“Kieren,” she interrupts. “Yes, I’ve been briefed.”

“Then you can help!” Luka sits up. “Josina, you have to try to stop Father. Kieren cannot be executed. He can’t die. Please you have to convince Father.”

Josina looks doubtful. “Luka, I adored Kieren as much as you, but you can’t deny that the evidence is rather against him, not to mention you can’t even  _ remember  _ if it was him or not.”

“Not you too! Jos, I know… I know it looks awful for Kieren, but I know him. He would never, never do something like this, especially not… to me.” Josina looks unconvinced, her face showing no sympathy for Kieren. At the end of the day, Josina is a general and a warrior. She trusts logic and justice. Luka swallows his adamant defense of Kieren for a moment. “Even if he did, we can’t be sure. We can never be completely sure at this point. We shouldn’t execute someone if we can’t be sure. It’s too… permanent.”

Finally, some doubt creeps into Josina’s eyes and she nods. “I will… speak to Father, see what he thinks an appropriate alternative would be.”

Luka lays back down, closing his eyes. “Thank you Josina. Thank you. Please tell me as soon as he’s made a decision, will you?”

“Of course.”

+++

Kieren can barely think straight. Every part of his body hurts, whether it’s from being bound at odd angles or from being violated day in and day out. Bader has moved him from the cell to being tied, spread across his desk, face and ass hanging off either side. 

Bader followed through on his threat after the king accused Kieren of lying and replaced the thin phallus with the much more formidable one as soon as the king left. The phallus in his ass is so large and so heavy that he can feel it slipping out slightly ever so often, tugging on his rim as it does. But someone always comes to play with his cock or use his mouth and pushes the phallus back in. Bader didn’t bother to use oil when he first put it in. With that and the constant movement of it in his ass, Kieren always feels a wet trickle of what can only be blood down his leg. The blindfold hasn’t come off since Bader shoved the new phallus into Kieren. Kieren can’t tell what time of day it is. Kieren can’t tell how many cocks he’s choked on.

“Time for your meal.” One of the guards comes in with fragrant food and a glass of water. Kieren hates that he gives Bader credit for thinking of feeding him regularly; he can’t show up after days in Bader’s care a starved skeleton. Kieren always hopes they’ll untie him for the meal but they never do. 

Kieren expects food when something is offered to his lips but he sticks his tongue out to taste leather. It’s a boot and he recoils. The guard laughs and hold Kieren by the back of his neck. “Clean my boot. Isn’t that what slaves are supposed to do?” Kieren’s stomach rumbles and he whimpers before he starts laving the guard’s boot with his tongue. It tastes like copper and leaves his mouth feeling dusty. When the guard is satisfied, the boot is replaced with the smell of ham. The guard feeds it to him piece by piece, yanking his head up by his hair so he can chew and swallow. It’s degrading but it helps to not have his stomach be another part of him that aches.

“I heard you aren’t gonna be executed anymore,” the guard says conversationally. Kieren nearly chokes at the words. He hadn’t known he was going to be executed in the first place.

“Sel, I wanted to tell him the good news!” A more familiar voice says. Bader approaches the desk, slapping Kieren’s ass on the way. Kieren flinches forward and lets out a little cry. “Thank you Sel, I’ll take over from here.” The guard who was feeding Kieren leaves, and Bader takes his place sitting in front of Kieren. Kieren can feel his breath on his skin.

The blindfold is finally taken off and Kieren almost cries at the brightness of his surroundings and at the ability to see again. Bader smirks, far too close to Kieren’s face. “Oh, have you been crying? How pathetic.” He swats at Kieren’s swollen eyes.

“Stop it, Bader. Please just stop,” Kieren groans.

“But my men are enjoying this so much. I’ve never seen their morale higher,” Bader chuckles. “But alas, all good things must end I suppose. You’ll be out of our hands soon.”

Kieren lifts his head as much as he can, hopeful that Bader will actually give him information. “Sel said something about an execution? Am I…”

Bader waves his hand. “No, that’s off, thanks to your sweet Luka and Josina upstairs I’m sure. No, no execution for you, but something else just as entertaining. Thirty lashes publically and two days of exposure out in the square,” Bader says, almost gleefully.

“You’re sick,” Kieren whispers, as the blood drains from his face. “You’re a sick human being.”

“What? I’m sick for preferring your public humiliation to your death?”

Kieren is about to throw another taunt at Bader but Bader begins to untie his bonds and he’s so shocked, he can’t say a word.

“Have you become used to being tied up like the slut you are?” Bader asks against Kieren’s ear. All the ropes are untied and Kieren slumps to the ground in a heap of limbs. He hasn’t stood on his own feet in two days now, and the simple act of flexing his thighs hurts his asshole. “Weak thing, can’t even stand on your own.” Kieren has to be dragged by Bader over to the cell where Bader unceremoniously pulls out the phallus in his ass. Kieren cries out as his ass now gapes around nothing and Bader laughs, circling his finger around Kieren’s hole. “What a whore, with your hole still open wide. C’mon now, look sharp. You’re going to have a special visitor soon.”

+++

Luka has never been down to the dungeons. The stone steps leading down are hard enough to navigate with the dim lighting along the way, but with his left eye bandaged, it’s even more difficult. Bader waits at a formidable door at the end of the staircase with a grin on his face.

“Your Highness.” Bader bows deeply and even kisses the back of Luka’s hand. Luka shivers and pulls his robe tighter around himself. “I’m honored to be in your presence today. Are you cold? I can gladly get you a coat.” Luka shakes his head, but Bader still wraps an arm around Luka’s waist in a feigned effort to warm him as they step through the door. Luka is too scared to pull away, especially as the pained groans of the inmates hit his ears. “Very sorry you have to see all this ugliness, Your Highness. I assure you they are all getting their due punishment.” Luka keeps his eyes on the trained, shuddering as he’s suddenly taken back to memory of the the slave dealer’s, the day they bought Kieren. Did he really do the best thing for Kieren by buying him? Or did he just doom Kieren to an even worse fate?

“It’s fine, Sir Bader. Just take me to Kieren quickly, please.”

“Of course Your Highness. Right this way.” They round a corner and suddenly moans are replaced with jeers about Luka’s smooth skin, his pretty hair, and his tight ass. Luka flinches and Bader pets his hair with mock care. “Very sorry you have to hear this Your Highness. We keep all of the rapists and gang bosses in this area. My office is right here. The slave is right inside.”

The door opens and Luka sees a heap of limbs on the ground behind cell bars. Kieren’s usually lean and strong form has never looked so helpless and it takes all of Luka’s willpower to not run to him. Kieren’s glazed over blue eyes register pain and hurt as he glances at Bader’s hand clutching Luka’s hip.

“Sir Bader,” Luka says shakily, finally pushing Bader’s hand off of him. “Leave me alone with Kieren please.”

Bader frowns. “Your Highness, I do highly advise that I remain in the room, for your protection. The slave is dangerous and has already tried to attack you once before.”

Luka grits his teeth and stands up straighter. “Sir Bader, as Crown Prince, I do believe I can take care of myself. I command you to leave the room and remain outside until I call you back in.”

Bader pauses, anger flickering in his eyes for just a moment. But then he bows deeply. “Of course, Your Highness. I will be right outside if you require anything.”

Luka nods his head in acknowledgement as Bader exits, closing the door behind him. As soon as the door clicks closed, Luka runs to Kieren’s side, nearly tripping over himself to do so. He fiddles with the lock on the cell door with shaky hands and looks around in panic for a key.

“He keeps the key on him,” Kieren rasps out, unmoving.

Tears spill over Luka’s eyes. “Kieren. I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry this is happening to you. My gods. Can you… Can you move? Can you sit up?”

Kieren twitches and attempts to maneuver himself into a sitting position. He needs to grab onto the cell bars to pull himself up and through it all, his teeth are gritted with pain. Luka sobs openly now. “What have they done to you? What has Bader done to you?”

Kieren shakes his head. “Nothing, Luka. It’s nothing. Truly. I’m just, ah, glad you’re here.” He’s panting and there’s a sheen of sweat on his face as he finally sits up. Luka glances down at Kieren’s body. He’s seen Kieren naked before by virtue of living in such close proximity to him, but he’s never seen Kieren like this. His cock is angrily red and upright. There are rope burns over his arms and thighs. His lips are swollen, chapped, and bleeding.

“I’m going to kill him.” Luka’s stomach burns in anger. “I’m going to fucking kill Bader.”

“No, it’s fine Luka. It’s fine. I’m fine.” Kieren reaches a hand through the bars and holds Luka’s hand tentatively. Luka squeezes back, and reaches his other hand through to cup Kieren’s jaw. “Are you okay? I’m so sorry I couldn’t protect you. I’m so sorry you got hurt.” Kieren’s other hand reaches up to trace the trail of stitches running from under Luka’s bandages down to his jaw. “And your eye…”

Luka brushes Kieren’s hand away and holds it in his own. “I’m perfectly fine. The medics are wonderful and everything’s almost healed — or at least stopped bleeding — but for my eye. I swear, I’m fine. I’m more worried about you.”

“Well, I’m not being executed anymore, so I’ll be back with you in no time,” Kieren laughs dryly, almost hysterically.

“What’s happening instead?” Luka asks, shakily, scared of what the answer would be. “Josina was supposed to tell me what my father decided on but Bader told me to come down here before I could see her.”

“Just don’t worry about it.” Kieren turns away from Luka, now resting the side of his head against the bars. “It’ll be over by the end of the week, then things will be back to normal.”

“No, please just tell me!” Luka turns Kieren’s head back to face him with a hand on his jaw. His sudden gripping of Kieren’s face glazes his eyes back over and Kieren starts to shake. Luka immediately lets go and resumes squeezing Kieren’s hand comfortingly. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry. Kier, please. Tell me. I want to know. I want to be there for you. I want—”

Kieren’s eyes return and there’s a sudden blaze in them. “No, no. You won’t be there. I won’t let you. I don’t want you to see that.”

“See what?!”

Kieren closes his eyes and takes a sharp, shuddering breath. “Thirty lashes and two days exposure in the square.”

Luka pales and suddenly feels nauseous. “That’s as good as a death sentence,” he stammers out, pressing his forehead to Kieren’s through the bars. “You’ll get an infection. You’ll get fever. You can’t— That’s not—”

“I’ll be fine,” Kieren whispers. “Anything is better than execution, I suppose. I just can’t believe the King would sentence me to death just for thinking that I lied to him, just based on Bader’s word. Nothing more than that.”

Luka’s forehead wrinkles in confusion. “‘N-Nothing more’? What do you mean?”

Kieren pulls his head away from Luka’s. “Well, what else would it be for? It can’t be for the attack because you must have told them that it wasn’t me. They’ll believe you! They wouldn’t listen to me when I tried to tell them about the intruders.”

“I-Intruders?” Luka’s blood runs cold. Kieren is going to realize that Luka is the reason he’s in this situation. Kieren is going to hate him. Luka may as well have issued his death sentence.

“Do you…” Kieren swallows. “Do you not remember?”

Luka reaches for Kieren, who turns away slightly, just so that Luka can’t touch him. “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry,” he pleads. “I tried to tell everyone it wasn’t you, that it couldn’t have been you. You would never do this. I know.”

“But you don’t remember,” Kieren says, softly and sadly.

“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.” Kieren backs away from the cell bars, wincing as his ass scrapes along the ground. Luka gives up on trying to hold him, instead wiping the quickly flowing tears from his face. “Kieren, I swear, I tried to tell them it wasn’t you. They wouldn’t believe me.”

Kieren nods absently, but his eyes have reverted back to the blank stare that he had when Luka first came in. “It’s fine,” he murmurs. “I… You should leave, Luka.” Luka tries to protest but Kieren just keeps speaking. “And please don’t come to the square tomorrow. Just don’t. I don’t want to see you there.”

Luka nods while swiping the tears off of his eyes, before standing up and all but running towards the door of the office, getting away as fast as he can, as Kieren obviously wants him to.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> blackmatterwriting.tumblr.com yeeet


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey all! thank you so much for all the support on this story so far! it really means the world to me. this chapter (and future chapters probably) is somewhat shorter than previous chapters because i've started working and eventually school will start again, so i apologize but i still hope you enjoy!

“Today’s the big day, slave.” 

Bader’s let Kieren lay on the ground, with just his wrists cuffed to the cell bars, though it doesn’t do much to relieve the pain of the scrapes all along his side. The larger wooden phallus was returned to his ass after Luka left two days ago, though nothing really felt painful anymore after watching Luka flee from the room. Flee from  _ him. _

“I didn’t think you could look any worse, but you surprise me every day.”

Bader has abandoned all pretense at this point and has his cock out and in his hand, even before his office door is fully shut and bolted. Bader’s face is gleeful as he approaches and takes off Kieren’s gag. 

“Today the whole town will get to see what a slut you are, Kieren.” Kieren doesn’t say a word. He doesn’t have any fight left in him. Even Luka has left him, and nothing else really matters. Bader grows angry and slaps Kieren across the face, eliciting a small cry, which makes Bader smile. “Don’t feel much like talking today?” Kieren still remains silent.

Bader growls and pulls Kieren up by his hair, before uncuffing him and dragging him over to his desk, where Bader tied his hands behind his back and his ankles to the corners of the desk, leaving Kieren bent in half and spread open, whimpering at the excessive stretch in his legs.

“Aren’t you tired of this, Bader?” Kieren pants. 

“Of course not.” Bader traces his hand over Kieren’s ass and dips into his crack. “Today is the main event. I thought you’d be here for longer, but since you’ll be leaving us today, I thought this would be the perfect send-off gift.” Bader taps the base of the wooden phallus in Kieren’s ass, causing Kieren to buck forward and accidentally slam his cock into the desk. “Oh, we don’t want that pretty cock damaged!” Bader pulls Kieren’s cock out and strokes it roughly. At the same time, he pulls the phallus out of Kieren’s ass with a gasp from Kieren, who suddenly feels empty and hollow. Bader circles his finger around the rim and hums in approval. “Oh good, still plenty tight.” Kieren hears the wet squelch of Bader fisting his own cock and what Bader intends to do suddenly dawns on him.

“Wait, Bader, please.” Kieren could barely swallow the other man’s cock in his mouth. He definitely couldn’t take it in his ass. “Bader, please don’t.”

Bader squeezes Kieren’s cock and Kieren cries out. “Would you rather the wood back inside?”

The pain from his cock is so great Kieren can’t think straight. He doesn’t know what the right answer would be, what answer would cause him the least pain. “I-I don’t know. I don’t— ah!” Bader scissors two oiled fingers in his ass.

“I think I liked it when you called me Sir Bader,” Bader muses, almost conversationally as he continues to finger Kieren’s hole open. “So tell me, would you rather have my cock in your ass or perhaps we can try the next size up on those phalluses?”

“Y-Y-Your cock.” Kieren feels tears spring to his eyes at the embarrassment of what he’s being forced to say, but the threat of the even larger phallus is too much for him to bear.

“Beg for it,” Bader taunts. “And I thought I told you to call me something.” Bader retrieves the larger phallus from his drawer and teases it near Kieren’s hole. “What do you want, slave?” 

“Y-Your cock up my ass. Sir,” Kieren yelps as Bader runs the phallus up and down his cleft.

“Oh, I can finally understand what you’re asking for, slave.” Bader tosses the phallus over the desk and it lands on the ground right in front of Kieren. Kieren lets out a sob of relief as he sees the piece of wood. It’s huge, and he can’t even imagine it fitting up his ass. But his moment of relief doesn’t last long because Bader chooses that moment to slam his cock into Kieren’s ass without warning.

Kieren screams while Bader moans. “Slave, your ass is still so fucking tight. You were made for this. Shame you won’t be around much longer for me to indulge further.”

“Fuck you. Ah, fuck you!” Kieren snarls until Bader hits something inside Kieren that makes his cock jump and a moan escape his lips. It’s shameful and humiliating and Bader laughs.

“Oh, look at that. It looks like you  _ are  _ enjoying this, you dirty whore.” Bader leans down close to Kieren’s ear and whispers, “You think your precious Luka will ever want you again? Ever touch you again, when he finds out how disgusting and desperate you are for a cock in your hole?” 

Bader’s words pierce into Kieren’s heart, aching perhaps even more than his cock ramming into him. Bader keeps up a brutal rhythm of slamming into Kieren again and again, but at least while he’s lost in the reverie of fucking Kieren, he doesn’t spew any more taunts. Kieren can’t form full thoughts either. With every pound into his ass, Kieren’s mind just fills with pain and shame and  _ make it stop make it stop make it stop.  _

+++

“Luka, come on. Let’s go for a ride.”

Luka snaps out of his reverie. He had been staring out the window of the parlor that had a view of the city square for more than an hour now. According to the small clock on the side table, there was another half-hour before Kieren’s punishment would begin. There was already a large pallet with a pole in the center of it wheeled into the square. In half and hour, Kieren would be bound to that pole. Luka had been unable to focus on anything all day, lost in a haze of imagining the worst that could happen to Kieren, though it seems like the worst has already happened. A haze of envisioning the defeated and pained look on Kieren’s face the last time Luka saw him.

Josina shakes Luka’s shoulder. “Luka, come on,” she says again, an edge of annoyance but also desperation in her voice. “It’ll be nice. It’s nearly sunset. And Emmy still has yet to see you since you’ve been in the infirmary. You’re looking much better now and she desperately wants to see you. Let’s all go riding together like old times. Maybe pack a picnic. We can ride to that meadow you’ve always liked.”

“No, I think I should stay,” Luka mutters.

Josina groans and pulls Luka by his bicep up to his feet. This is one of the moments where Luka is irked by how strong Josina is and reminded of how willowy he is in contrast. “No, you should not. For both yours and Kieren’s sake. He wouldn’t want you to see. And why should both of you have to suffer? You have no blame in this and punishing yourself isn’t going to help anyone.”

“Josina, just stop it.” Luka wrenches himself out of her grasp. “This is all my fault for not being able to remember or prove it wasn’t him. The least I can do is just… watch it happen. I can’t just… do nothing. You don’t—”

“Luka?” Emmelina wanders by the doorway and just happens to glance over into the parlor. She already wearing her riding gear and clutching a set of reins. “Luka! It is you!” Emmelina runs towards Luka, her little riding boots clicking on the floor. “I haven’t seen you in so long. I missed you so much. Momma wouldn’t let me into the infirmary to see you and— Oh, Luka, what happened to your eye?” 

“It’s nothing, Emmy. Just poked myself in the eye accidentally.” Luka bends down to hug Emmelina and she flutters her fingers around the bandage before kissing Luka’s forehead, right above where the gauze ends. Luka catches Josina’s eye over Emmelina’s shoulder and she glares at him.  _ Don’t tell her anything,  _ Josina mouths at him.

“Can you still come riding with us, Luka? I really wanna go riding with you. It’s been so long since the three of us have done anything together.”

Josina continues to glare at Luka. Luka ruffles Emmelina’s hair and smiles a little. “I… Of course, maybe even pack some snacks that you like. That’ll be fun, hmm?”

“Yes!” Emmelina squeals. “How about Kieren? Can he come too? Please?”

Both Josina and Luka freeze, but luckily for Luka, Josina shakes herself out of it first and pulls Emmelina up into her arms. “Kieren can’t come today, Emmy. Let’s go saddle all the horses up right now and let Luka change into riding clothes, okay?” Emmelina nods cheerily and follows Josina out of the parlor without a care in the world. Josina glares at Luka again and mouths  _ Get going  _ at him. Luka glances at the clock on the table as he exits the parlor. 

Fifteen minutes left.


	7. Chapter 7

Kieren would normally feel horribly embarrassed to be paraded into town, naked and shackled, but with every stumbling step hurting his ass and with Bader’s cum still trickling down his thighs, it feels like nothing matters anymore. 

There must be signs warning the townspeople of what is about to happen in the square because there are no merchant stands set up and no children running about. It is mostly grown men who fill the square and jeer as Kieren is pulled onto a raised platform. His wrists are tied onto a pole in the middle of the platform, high enough so that his feet don’t rest entirely firmly on the platform, but that doesn’t matter much anyway because his feet are immediately kicked apart and tied to a bar, keeping his legs spread open.

“Heh, look at the cum in his ass. Bet he’s a great pleasure slave,” someone jeers from below. Kieren shudders, and he isn’t sure if it’s from humiliation or fear, hiding his face with his arm as best he can.

“Gentle townspeople,” a crier reads from a scroll. “Please depart from the square if you are faint of heart.” A handful of people shuffle quickly away, though it’s obvious most of the crowd is here to watch. “The criminal you see before you today is a slave from the castle, found guilty of: attacking an appointed knight, lying to His Majesty the King, and attempted murder of His Highness Crown Prince Lukanos.”

Gasps and whispers spread throughout the crowd, with some people even screaming “Off with his head!” and “Hang him!” up at the platform, but the crier and the soldiers surrounding it pay no attention. The crier continues.

“The punishment as handed down by the King: thirty lashes and two days exposure to the elements in the town square. As such, merchant activities here will be halted during the span of his punishment. Please be reminded that feeding or healing of the criminal is illegal.”

Kieren sees one of Bader’s friends, Claine, come up the steps at the back of the platform, a grin on his face and a menacing whip in his hands. “I have the great honor of providing your punishment today,” he says, right in Kieren’s face, hitting the handle of the whip on his palm meaningfully. “And before we begin, I have some presents for you.” Out of his pocket he pulls a small viall and what looks to be a horse’s bit. He shoves the bit into Kieren’s mouth as Kieren struggles, but the small strip of metal ends up in his mouth anyway.

“You’ll want that, so you don’t bite off your tongue,” Claine says while popping open the cork on the viall. “And this—” He pulls Kieren’s head back and trickles it into the side of his mouth. “Is a draught to keep you from losing consciousness too quickly. We want you to fully appreciate this punishment for what you’ve done.” Kieren snarls and thrashes, trying to stop the liquid from flowing down his throat but the bit and his binds make it impossible.

“Sir Claine, you set to begin?” One of the soldiers flanking the platform asks.

Claine nods. The crier scrambles off of the platform and the soldiers stand straighter, ready to keep the townspeople from getting too close to the platform, for their own safety rather than Kieren’s. Claine shucks his jacket and rolls up his sleeves.

Kieren hears the crack of the whip a split second before he feels it land on his back. When he does, it feels like a stripe of lightning has pierced his skin. Despite his efforts to not scream and humiliate himself further, he can’t help it and he screams past the bit.

There’s no way he can’t survive twenty-nine more.

But the strikes keep coming and the blood keeps flowing. Claine is merciless, hitting not just Kieren’s back but his ass and even the tops of his thighs. Saliva drips off of Kieren’s chin, as he can’t fully close his mouth both from the bit and from the scream that seems to come endlessly out of his mouth.

Kieren’s lost count of what number lash he’s on, but it seems like well beyond what he should have been able to tolerate, undrugged. But the potion Claine gave him seems to work, as Kieren is still conscious, but all he can perceive is a constant ringing in his ears, giving him a headache nearly mirroring the pain of his back, and a white fog over everything he sees. His legs have given out a long time ago and if it weren’t for the rope on his wrists, he’d be on the ground in a a bloody heap by now.

It must be over because Kieren vaguely senses Claine walking over and spitting into his face as well as the hushed buzz of people exiting the square. It seems like the potion’s effects are wearing off because black finally tinges the edges of Kieren’s vision and when a townsperson slaps his bloody ass, he falls screaming, finally, into darkness.

+++

Out of habit, Luka and his sisters take the trail overlooking the town to get back to the castle. They used to stop by the market to buy fruit and sweets on the way back. Their mother would never let the servants buy the unhealthy, sugar-crusted desserts they liked, and while Emelina was younger, her personal guard always followed, doing their mother’s bidding. It’s only when Luka hears the characteristic whistle of a whip that he realizes their mistake. Josina must notice too, because she sits up straighter in her saddle and pales slightly.

“What’s that sound?” Emelina asks, trailing a little behind them and gazing towards the town.

Josina looks at Luka in panic before beckoning to Emelina and saying, “Um, it’s nothing. Ah, Emmy, let’s race back to the castle! Loser has to help the kitchen wash dishes!”

Emelina giggles and trots up her pony to Josina. “You’re on!”

Josina glances back at Luka. “Luka, do you… want to stop by town?” she asks, hesitantly and worriedly, whether it’s just for Luka or for both him and Kieren, Luka isn’t sure.

Luka nods absently, staring in the direction of the town and his breath quickening. His heart pounds in his chest. “Yes, I’ll… meet you both back home later.” Josina nods, worry in her eyes. Emelina just waves at him, without looking back, bracing herself to start the race with Josina. Luka doesn’t hear them take off because he’s already started galloping towards the town square.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> shorter chapter, sorry! but again, I've started working so I have less time to write and am trying to stockpile some chapters for when I inevitably get busier. I think I'll be trying to update every Monday though, so look forward to that!


	8. Chapter 8

Luka ropes his horse up at the watering hole just outside of town and runs down the main road, heart beating far too fast even before he starts running. Suddenly, an arm is flung out and stops him in his tracks. He instinctively whips out his sword from his hip and swings the blade towards the man’s throat. 

“Whoa, whoa, Your Highness!” The man pulls back his arm and puts both hands up. The street lamp lights up the face of the auburn haired man in front of him.

“Oh. Sir Claine. I’m very sorry about that.” Luka sheaths his sword and tries to slow his breathing. “With only one eye in commission, my guard is up a little higher than usual,” he tries to laugh it off. “Are you alright?”

Claine chuckles. “Completely understandable, Your Highness. Yes, I’m perfectly fine. But, if I may ask, what is Your Highness doing out in town so late and without a guard? It’s dark out. I’m sure His and Her Majesty would want you escorted back to the castle right away, especially so soon after your attack.”

“It’s fine, Sir Claine. I actually have business in town. Josina knows I’m here.” Luka starts to edge away from Claine, desperate to get to the square.

“Let me accompany you then.”

It’s then that Luka notices the heavy-duty gloves on Claine’s hands, the blood speckled shirt that’s not fully covered up by his coat, and most damning, the whip hooked onto his belt, crusted with dried blood. Angry fire courses through Luka’s veins and it takes all of his willpower to not pull out his sword again and slice Claine’s head off of his neck.

“Actually, Sir Claine, I’ll continue alone. I am perfectly capable on my own.” Luka stuffs his hands into his pockets so Claine can’t see them clenching into fists.

Claine frowns. “I wasn’t insinuating that Your Highness isn’t capable, however—”

“I insist you leave, Sir Claine.” An edge creeps into Luka’s voice. “You were heading in the direction out of town. I insist you continue on your way.”

Claine hesitates but nods and bows slightly. “Alright Your Highness. I do implore that you stay away from the square, however. There’s a dangerous criminal there and I, of course, do not wish any harm on Your Highness.”

“Thank you Sir Claine. I’ll make sure to do that.” Claine bows again and continues in the opposite direction of Luka. Luka makes sure that Claine has turned the corner and can’t see Luka anymore before he starts running up the road. There are signs erected at every road leading into the square, warning of a violent punishment being carried out in the square that day. Luka keeps running. The moonlight is just enough to illuminate the pole in the middle of the courtyard and the limp figure dangling from it.

“Kieren!” Luka screams. Luckily, all the storefronts and empty merchant stands around the square have closed for the night, so no lights come on at Luka’s desperate cries. Luka clambers onto the platform, shaking, by Kieren’s side. “Kieren, Kieren. Oh my gods, Kieren.” Luka doesn’t know where to touch; Kieren’s entire back, ass, and legs are bloody. His skin is flayed and the rest of his body covered in sweat. His chest barely rises and falls.

Kieren twitches a little and Luka jumps like he’s been shocked. “Kieren?” Kieren mumbles something and when Luka leans in closer he hears what he says.

“Please stop, please stop, please stop,” he says over and over, so quietly it’s almost a breath. “Please stop. I can’t do it. I can’t do it anymore.”

“Kieren, it’s me, Luka. It’s me,” Luka whispers.

“No, no, no, not Luka. Please not Luka,” Kieren whimpers, thrashing slightly. More blood trickles down his body. “Don’t hurt him. Don’t hurt him.”

“No, Kieren, I’m Luka. I’m here. I’m fine.” Luka cups Kieren’s face and at first, Kieren jerks away violently from his touch. His face is flaming hot. But Luka presses the back of his cool hand to Kieren’s cheek and it seems to help. Kieren leans into it this time, panting. Luka suddenly remembers the flask strapped to his belt. He curses himself for not remembering to refill it earlier but he dribbles the last bit into Kieren’s mouth. Kieren laps it up gratefully before his eyes slowly flutter open.

“Oh gods, it’s actually you,” Kieren whispers. He closes his eyes again, as if he can’t believe it. “I thought I was hallucinating… I thought…” He opens his eyes again. 

“I’m here. It’s really me,” Luka says, pressing their foreheads together. Kieren’s is too warm.

“Do you…” Kieren coughs. “Do you have more water?”

“No, but I can get some.” Luka starts to rise, hastily fumbling at his flask.

“No, no,” Kieren says, panicked. “No, just stay here with me please. It’s fine.”

“But you need— You’re getting a fever. You have to—”

“I’d rather you be here. Please, just stay for a bit.” Luka bites his lip, but nods and continues to caress Kieren’s face. Kieren sighs and turns his head so that it rests in Luka’s palm.

“Kier, you’ll die out here. You can’t stay here. I’ll talk to Josina, I’ll talk to Father.”

Kieren shakes his head urgently. “You can’t tell anyone you came to see me. They won’t let you out of the castle again if they know you’ve come here. It’s only two days. I can survive.” Suddenly, there’s a barrage of footsteps coming from the road Luka entered from. Both him and Kieren look up in panic.

“Luka, you need to leave. Right now. They can’t know you were here.”

Luka nods, hurriedly wiping tears off of his cheeks. “Tomorrow I’ll come. I’ll be here. I swear. And I’ll bring water and something for your injuries. I’ll be here.” Kieren nods too, and when Luka kisses him on his forehead, he lets out a soft gasp of surprise. Luka reluctantly pulls away and speeds away to another road leading off of the square, darting through an alleyway to return to the original road. The footsteps belong to a handful of soldiers, obviously from the castle.

“Do you think the criminal has seen the Prince?”

“Maybe. Let’s just go ask him.”

“He’s probably unconscious. He took thirty lashes!”

“Who cares? We can just slap him around until he wakes up.”

Luka’s heart pounds as he dashes out onto the road, behind the soldiers before they can reach the square. “Men, what are you doing out here?” he calls to them. 

“Your Highness!” All of them turn and bow.

“We’re part of Sir Claine’s squad,” one of them says. “He told us he saw you out here and it had been getting late so he sent us to search for you.”

“Well, I’m perfectly fine,” Luka says with a tone of annoyance. It takes so much effort to keep his his voice from shaking. “I had already told Sir Claine I had business to conduct in town.”

“Yes, Your Highness, sorry Your Highness. However, His Majesty actually also requested that we were sent out. We really should escort you back to the castle now, Your Highness.”

Luka sighs in resignation and allows himself to be led back to the watering hole, where his horse along with those of the soldiers are still tied.

“In the future, Your Highness, you perhaps shouldn’t be near the square. There was a violent prisoner just steps from where you were. It’s really for your own safety, Your Highness.”

Luka closes his eyes briefly. Kieren’s pained face and soft gasps and tender leans into Luka’s hand come to mind. “Yes, of course,” he murmurs to the soldier. “I’ll be sure to stay away. I’m sure he’s awfully dangerous.”


	9. Chapter 9

“I need you to go with the border patrol today to survey our border with Oscora.”

Luka looks up from his book. He doesn’t even remember what book it is. He had been just staring at the words, unreading, just waiting for night to fall so that he could see Kieren again. Plus, with one eye still bandaged, it takes far more effort than Luka wants to exert to concentrate on reading. His father is standing in front of him, arms crossed.

“I’m sorry, what? I didn’t hear you.”

His father sighs. “You need to go with the border patrol today to the Oscora border. As Crown Prince, it’s high time to survey our lands. Furthermore, there have been rumors that the king of Oscora has recently fallen ill, so we need extra attention at that border, in case he tries any desperate last attempts on our land. It’ll also be a good opportunity to find weak points in case we decide to invade.”

Luka’s blood runs cold. The Oscora border is at least a half days ride away. “How long is this patrol to last? Doesn’t Josina usually go on these types of surveys?”

“It’s short, more to get you acquainted with the border than anything and for the troop to note any weak spots in the wall or perhaps places we need more guards at for later missions. You should be back by sunset tomorrow. Josina can’t go because she’s training potential knights today.”

“I’m sorry Father but I can’t today, I—”

“Why not? You’re reading books meant for children?” Luka glances down at the book he was holding. It’s an  _ Introduction to the Geography of Edeianos.  _ By the thickness of it, it doesn’t seem like a children’s book, but it’s information that Luka should have learned as a ten year old. It’s a book that even Emelina has been starting to read. “This just shows how much you need to get out onto the land yourself. It’s  _ your  _ land now.”

“Father, I—”

“No excuses, Lukanos. Besides, perhaps this will keep you from getting restless. I heard you were found in the town, alone, after sundown yesterday. Not only that, but near the square. Near the prisoner! I know what you must have been up to, Lukanos. I will not have my son be someone who breaks the law just to speak to some slave.”

“I had other business in town. I can take care of myself! You can’t—”

His father holds up a dismissive hand. “The knights should have packed your tent and bags for you already, but you should groom your horse and get him ready for the trip. I know usually your slave does it for you but until we find you a replacement you’ll have to learn to do it yourself. You’ll leave in an hour.”

“I am not getting a replacement for Kieren!”

His father raises an eyebrow. “If you want him to be servicing your horse and your gear while his back is torn into shreds, feel free. You’ll finally be using him for what a slave is meant to be used for.” Luka pales and shudders, shaking his head. His father nods. “That’s what I thought. You leave in an hour,” he repeats.

Luka wants to hold his ground, wants to argue, but there’s a glint in his father’s eyes. “The troops will be going regardless of if you are there. But your presence brings them better supplies, better armor. Who knows what they’ll run into at the border, but it doesn’t matter I suppose because if you choose to stay, they’re expendable. I don’t need my high quality supplies going to support some peasant squad who’s not engaging in battle.”

Luka thinks of all the merchants’ children who are enlisted in the military. He thinks of all the staff’s children and siblings who are enlisted. All of them who depend on him not just to lead, but also to protect. What would Kieren say if Luka told him he abandoned his people, just to see Kieren for a brief moment? Luka closes his eyes.

“Fine. I leave in an hour.”

+++

Kieren actually managed to fall asleep last night, or at least fell into a state of unconsciousness which was far preferable than being awake. When he wakes up, he can’t see. He’s transported back to being bent over Bader’s desk, helpless and hurting. He thrashes and cries out, only to have his back feel like it’s on fire. Then he remembers where he is.

“Oh shit, the slave is awake.”

The fabric tied around his eyes is thin enough for him to see some light leaking through — the golden tone of it tells him it’s the late afternoon — and to faintly make out three silhouettes heading his way. Or maybe it’s six. His head is so heavy, his mind so fuzzy. His insides feel so hot but the surface of skin is cold and he can’t stop shivering. He remembers blips of people yelling at him or throwing things at him, so he must have woken up for brief moments earlier in the day, but all of it seems so unreal it could have easily been in his head.

“Water,” he manages to croak out as the figures get closer. 

They laugh. “Look, the bitch wants water.”

There’s a splashing sound and if his mouth wasn’t so dry, Kieren might have drooled. Something is offered up to his face and Kieren’s tongue darts out. It seems to be a hand, and tastes slightly salty and dusty, but it’s covered in water so Kieren licks and licks.

“Look at how greedy and desperate he looks, the little whore,” they sneer. The hand pulls away and Kieren whines. The drips of water were barely enough to coat his mouth, let alone wet his aching and dry throat.

Another hand, also wet, slides between his ass cheeks and circles his hole. Kieren can’t breathe. “No, no, no, no, please no,” he begs. It’s humiliating but he’ll take anything over something touching or, gods forbid, entering his raw, hurting hole. “Please no. I’ll do anything. Use my mouth, anything. Please. Not there.”

They laugh evilly but one of the silhouettes warns, “You should scrub your hand. He looks feverish. You wouldn’t wanna catch anything from him. He probably has all sorts of slave diseases.”

“Ah fuck, you’re probably right. Otherwise, I’d love to use that pretty ass of his.”

Kieren whimpers, both at the loss of water and the thought of being fucked again, especially in this state. The group laughs and leaves, but not without slapped Kieren on his bloodied ass which nearly sends Kieren to brink of unconsciousness again. He hovers on the edge, before sheer exhaustion and pain just sends him right over back into darkness.

+++

“Josina!” 

Luka runs down the corridor, dressed in his traveling leathers and light armor. He’s so glad he’s found Josina and even had the time to do so before the troop set off. Getting his horse ready and assembling his outfit and gear took longer than usual. He tries to not think about how it’s because usually Kieren is the one who does it for him.

“Luka? I thought you were going out on patrol.” Josina turns around, holding a bag with an assortment of swords on one arm and a shield in the other hand.

“I have fifteen minutes before we depart. I have to ask you a favor.”

Josina gestures to the things she’s holding. “I have a training session with potential knights in just a moment. I can’t go running around doing something else right now.”

“No, it doesn’t have to be right now. But, please, can you go see Kieren tonight? And bring him some water or anything? I was supposed to but I’m gonna be on patrol and—”

“Wait, wait,” Josina interrupts Luka. “When you went into town to see Kieren, you spoke to him? I thought you just wanted to see the square and check on him?”

“Yes Josina. I know it’s—”

“It’s illegal. Even for you! If you were to be caught, if Father knew—”

“I know, okay?! But Josina you don’t understand. He’s going to die. You know what his sentence was. It wasn’t execution but it might as well be. He’s going to die of dehydration, or infection, or something. Even just last night, he looked deathly. He can’t survive until tomorrow evening. I’d rather risk it than have him die out there!”

Josina’s lips tighten. She only holds Luka’s gaze for a moment longer before looking away. “I can’t be seen near him, let alone talking to him. And I have training into the night. But I have a friend in the medical troops, Tallyn, you can ask. She knows Kieren. I think she’d be open to it.”

Luka lets out a breath. “Thank you Josina.”

Josina nods curtly. “She should be in the infirmary right now and she has long dark brown hair. If she says yes, give her your royal seal pedant. She can show that if she’s caught. I won’t have my friend imprisoned, even if it’s for Kieren’s sake.”

Luka barely nods at Josina before he’s dashing off in the opposite direction, towards the infirmary. Inside, sitting on one of the cots is a pretty woman with her hair in a thick braid, matching Josina’s description, packing what looks like an army first-aid kit.

“Are you Tallyn?” Luka asks, out-of-breath.

She looks up surprised, before jumping up, spilling the kit at her feet. “Oh! Your Highness, I—” She hastily bows. “Oh gods, I’m sorry this is such a mess. Yes, I’m Tallyn. Oh, Your Highness, you really don’t have to—” She starts to pick up the spilled items. Luka kneels and helps her.

“It’s fine, it’s fine,” Luka says, a bit more impatiently than he usually would have. “I’m sorry for surprising you. Josina told me about you. I’m very sorry to ask this of you so soon after we meet but I need to ask you a favor.”

“Sure, of course. Anything for you, Your Highness.”

“I understand you know Kieren?”

She pales. “I— Yes, we were— are friends. I’ve sparred with him and I usually patched him up after he and Josina trained together.”

“I need you to visit him tonight. I promised him I would but I’ll be on patrol tonight and can’t make it. You need to bring him at least some water and some salve if you can.”

Fear enters Tallyn’s eyes. “Your Highness, I care deeply for Kieren and I serve you but I risk being caught. I could be imprisoned, or even killed.”

“I understand and I’m sorry I have to ask you to do this.” Luka grips Tallyn’s hand. “I wouldn’t if… I saw him yesterday. He looks horrible. I don’t know if he’ll survive until tomorrow. I just… I understand if you’re unwilling to give him anything, but please, just go and tell him why I can’t be there. Please. I beg you.” Luka fumbles under his shirt and pulls the pedant out that has his royal seal on it. “If anything does happen, say it’s on my orders. I swear I’ll vouch for you. Josina will too.” He presses it into her hand.

Tallyn still looks terrified but squeezes Luka’s hand back and takes the pedant. “Alright. I’ll try my best, Your Highness. For you and Kieren.”

Luka sighs in relief. “Oh, gods bless you Tallyn. Thank you.” He hugs her quickly and she lets out a squeak of surprise before gingerly hugging him back. “I must go on patrol now but I’ll be back by tomorrow evening. If they let him down before I return, please, please take care of him.”

Tallyn nods firmly. “Of course, Your Highness.”


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> rather short chapter, sorry! but to make up for it, i'll try to post again in a few days, stay tuned! and thank you for all the comments so far, they're so encouraging for me to keep writing. and i know a lot of my chapter ends are very cheap "fade to black" ends lol but again, i'm literally writing this as a guilty pleasure. i'm not tryna write a beautifully developed masterpiece (tho i do have a substantial plot outline and i'm v excited to write it all out!)

Gentle hands take the blindfold off of Kieren and smooth his sweaty, matted hair. It’s night time now and the soft breeze feels amazing on his heated skin, but also sends shivers down his spine.

“Luka?” Kieren breathes.

“No, I’m sorry, I’m not him.”

Kieren wrenches open his eyes to blurrily see Tallyn’s gray eyes and her slender, calloused hands fluttering over his face and forehead. “Tallyn? I… What are you doing here?” Her cool hands caress his face carefully and he sighs, closing his eyes again. “Where’s Luka? Is he alright?”

“Yes, he’s fine. He couldn’t come tonight, he’s on patrol.”

Kieren shudders, Bader’s taunts coming to mind. Luka probably found any excuse to not have to come see Kieren tonight. In this pathetic state, it’s no wonder Luka wouldn’t want to see him.

“Here, have some water. Careful, don’t drink too much all at once.” Tallyn tips a flask against Kieren’s lips, and he laps it up gratefully. “I also have something for your back.”

“How are you here? If you get caught, you’ll be killed,” Kieren groans.

“It’s fine. His Highness sent me. And I have his pedant.” She takes out a chain from under her shirt. Kieren assumes it’s Luka’s royal seal, but he can’t be sure because he can’t focus on it. He can’t clearly see anything in front of him. Kieren nods that he’s had enough and Tallyn pulls the flask away, pouring some onto a rag before clipping it back onto her belt. She presses the cloth to Kieren’s forehead and Kieren nearly moans at how good it feels.

“H-How bad is it? My back,” Kieren asks, trusting Tallyn’s medical knowledge. She didn’t react strongly when she first saw the injuries, but she’s also a well-trained army medic who must have seen some level of carnage.

She grimaces. “I can’t… I can’t give you a detailed answer without examining it. I can’t tell how deep some of them are or if they’re infected. But it’s… It’s not pretty, Kieren. I… It’s amazing that you’re conscious. That you’re mostly alive.”

Kieren laughs dryly as Tallyn pries open a canister from her belt. It has the distinctive herbal smell of some sort of healing salve.

“Here, bite down on this.” Tallyn tenderly puts a rag between his teeth. “The salve is going to sting and you can’t make too much noise otherwise someone might come. I’m sorry, I know it’ll be difficult, but it’ll hopefully keep the worst of the infection at bay until we can get you into the infirmary.” Kieren nods and squeezes his eyes shut, bracing himself for the pain.

It’s more watery than he expected and it slips down his back easily. Tallyn tries her best to reduce contact with his skin, instead letting the salve drip down by itself. First, it’s almost cooling before it seems to heat up, seeping into his wounds and feeling like it’s lighting them on fire from the inside. Kieren unconsciously thrashes and screams into the rag. Tallyn has to hold him down by his shoulders to keep him somewhat still.

“Kieren, Kieren, please stay still,” she whispers urgently. “You’re going to reopen some of these wounds. I know it’s hard, but try not to move.”

Kieren nods, straining and even more sweat pouring down his face from the effort. 

“Okay, okay. I’m done. Have more water. C’mon now.” The flask is pressed against Kieren’s lips again and he drinks carefully. The rest of the water Tallyn pours onto the cloth again and wipes off the new sweat off of his forehead. “You have a fever. I don’t have anything to treat it right now, but you’ll be back in no time. I’ll take care of it then, alright?” Kieren nods again, suddenly exhausted, and slumps against the pole. Tallyn kisses Kieren’s cheek and it hurts; it reminds him too much of Luka.


	11. Chapter 11

Luka deliberately takes the patrol near the town on their way back. It’s been a terribly awkward two days on patrol. All the soldiers either treat him gingerly and tenderly, trying to avoid the subject of Kieren — whom most of them know from his training with them — and failing miserably, or treat him like he’s a delicate child to be protected, even though Luka could definitely outshoot them with a bow and arrow and at least match them in fencing.

An empty pole stands in the middle of the square, a crimson splattered platform below it. Luka’s heart races and he urges his horse faster. The troops have no choice but to follow his pace. When the reach the stables, he flings himself off of his horse and takes the reins off of him hurriedly. His hands are shaking as he tries to unbuckle the saddle, until gentle hands do it for him. It’s Hael, one of the soldiers closer to Kieren who nods at Luka and finishes taking off his horse’s saddle for him.

“Don’t worry about this, I’ll take care of him for you,” he says, gesturing to Luka’s horse. “You can go ahead back to the castle.”

Luka barely has time to whisper “thank you” before he turns on his heel and runs as fast as he can towards the castle. As soon as he enters the door closest to the stable, Josina is there waiting for him. Without waiting for him to catch his breath, she starts walking briskly and he follows.

“Welcome back,” she says curtly. Luka opens his mouth to ask about the obvious but she continues quickly. “Kieren is back. Some of the medics in the infirmary refused to see him — calling him a traitor — so he’s in your room at the moment. I was sure you wouldn’t mind.” Luka nods his head in agreement. “Tallyn is in there with him.”

“H-How is he? Is he alright?”

“I’m not sure. I think he was unconscious when they brought him in and Tallyn said his fever is worse than it was last night. But I haven’t been in to see him since I first took him in.”

They round the corner and Josina pushes open the door to Luka’s room. As soon as they enter, Luka’s vision tunnels onto the bloody, twitching body of Kieren, lying on his stomach on Luka’s double bed, which has been covered by a cloth sheet, drenched in sweat and blood. His wrists and ankles are already wrapped in gauze. Tallyn is kneeling beside him, an assortment of medical supplies surrounding her, trying to hold his head up to have him drink some water while also trying to wipe away some of the blood and sweat with a rag.

“Oh, Your Highness, thank gods you’re back. I need help, no one else in the infirmary would— Please come over and try to have him drink some water would you?” Tallyn looks exhausted and takes a moment to scrape her hair into a messy ponytail. Luka nods wordlessly and scrambles onto the other side of the bed, gently taking Kieren’s head and laying it on his lap. He’s shaking as he drips some water onto Kieren’s lips. His face is shiny from sweat and burning to the touch.

“Are you going to be alright if I leave?” Josina stands awkwardly near the foot of the bed, shifting her weight between her feet. “I told Father I’d only be a moment and he’ll get suspicious if I’m away for much longer.”

Tallyn nods absently, focusing on wetting another rag and wiping down Kieren’s back. There’s already a small pile of bloody rags next to her. “Yes, now that I have someone else to help me I’ll be fine. If you could bring some more cloth and bandages from the infirmary later that’d be wonderful though.” Josina nods and combs through Luka’s hair briefly before heading out.

“Kieren, drink some water for me,” Luka murmurs desperately. “C’mon sweetheart, please.” The term of endearment slips out inadvertently. Tallyn looks up briefly as Luka says it but doesn’t comment. Kieren’s lips part slightly and Luka is able to trickle more water into his mouth. “What is his… diagnosis?” Luka asks Tallyn, once he sees Kieren’s throat pulse slightly and that he’s drinking somewhat by himself.

“He has quite a awful fever,” Tallyn says. “From the dehydration or the infection, I’m not sure. Some of the lashes have mild infection but nothing is too awful. The salve I applied yesterday definitely helped in that sense. Some of them are quite deep and I’ll need to stitch them up.” Tallyn pauses and blanches, something Luka has yet to see the seasoned medic do.

“What is it?” Tallyn still hesitates. “Tallyn, please, what is it?”

“H-He seems to have some anal tears,” she says quietly. Luka lets out a soft gasp and has to surreptitiously wipe away tears that have sprung into the corners of his eyes. “I’m not terribly sure what I can do about those yet. I’ve never… I’ve never had to treat them.”

“S-Sure,” Luka stammers, cradling Kieren’s face a little closer. He couldn’t break down right now, not with Kieren’s fevered head in his lap and his life in Luka’s hands. “Okay,” he breathes. “Just tell me whatever you need me to do. Anything you need.”

Tallyn nods and hands Luka a worn bit of leather. “Put this in his mouth so he doesn’t bite himself. I’m going to try to sew up some of his wounds while he’s still unconscious, but do be ready since he might wake up. His eyes having been twitching more so it’s likely that he’ll regain consciousness soon.”

“Okay,” Luka says, slipping his hand into Kieren’s. Tallyn threads a needle and rips the thread with her teeth. With a nod from Luka, Tallyn slips the needle into Kieren’s skin and starts stitching up one of the larger lashes, spanning almost the length of Kieren’s back. As she predicted, Kieren groans and bites down hard on the leather and grips Luka’s hand like a vice. Using his free hand, Luka strokes Kieren’s hair, shushing him gently.

With a sudden jolt and then a scream, Kieren’s eyes fly open and he thrashes in Luka’s grip. “Kieren! Please, stop!” Tallyn drops the needle and flinches backwards as Kieren continues to scream and writhe. “Kieren!” Luka yells, clutching Kieren’s face between his hands. “I need you to stop moving. C’mon, sweetheart, you can do it.”

Kieren’s glazed eyes finally latch onto Luka’s with pain and shock. “L-Luka? W-What are you doing here? Where am I— oh gods!” Tallyn has picked up the needle and begins sewing again. “Oh gods, oh gods, oh gods,” he chants, tears streaming down along with his sweat. He’s moved his hands up to Luka’s hips and grips the hem of Luka’s shirt tightly as he grits his teeth.

“Here, bite on this, here.” Luka reaches for the leather bit and puts it back in Kieren’s mouth. Saliva drips onto Luka’s lap where Kieren’s head lays as Luka continues to caress Kieren’s scalp, whispering sweet nothings to him. It’s only after a while that Luka notices Kieren has stopped flinching and the leather bit has fallen out of his mouth. He’s fallen unconscious again.

Tallyn takes this opportunity to hurriedly finish the stitching, tying the thread off and cutting it. “Okay, that’s one done,” she says, wiping her own sweat off with her forearm. “Do you think you can keep him still through another one?”

Luka nods, and continues to smooth over Kieren’s hair. But Kieren doesn’t wake up again, just twitches occasionally as the needle goes in and out. As Kieren’s breathing gets deeper and calmer, Luka feels calmer too. Tallyn announces softly that she’s done. She dabs away the last bit of blood and leaves some cloth and a glass of water on the bed side table. 

“Are you going to stay here tonight?” Tallyn asks. Luka nods. He can already feel himself falling asleep, petting Kieren’s hair absently. Tallyn nods. “Okay. There’s rags and water here if he heats up again. Hopefully the fever will break by itself, but if it doesn’t, I’ve left a draught here too though the side effects aren’t great so only use it if you need to. This one’s numbing, if he starts hurting. You can… use it inside him too. Of course, try not to touch or move his back too much.”

“Okay, got it, “Luka says, trying his hardest to stay awake and alert. Tallyn smiles at him before gathering her things and going out the door quietly. 

Luka adjusts himself against the headboard and props himself up with pillows. He ends up laying at an angle to Kieren, with Kieren’s head resting more on his stomach than his lap. As he feels his eyelids grow heavy, Luka keeps stroking Kieren’s hair and falls asleep with a kiss on Kieren’s forehead.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i've been and will continue to be HELLA busy so idk how often this will continue to be updated, but i'll try my best!


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this one is extra fucking angsty so be warned lol  
> (see end notes for why i'm suddenly posting out of the blue again)

Kieren wakes up warm and comfortable, his head laying on something soft and gently rising and falling. Kieren tries to pick his head up to look around but something is laying across the back of his neck, not entirely unpleasant. He moves his eyes upward and the first thing he sees is Luka, framed by his light golden hair and subtle sunlight, breathing quietly and practically nestled in the left side of Kieren’s neck. Kieren is laying on his chest, and it’s Luka’s arm draped across his neck. In his hand, he holds a damp cloth loosely and there’s another one resting on Kieren’ head. His legs are tucked around the other side of Kieren, and it’s a goddamn blissful scene until Kieren flexes his back and it erupts into flames.

He must have yelped because Luka awakes with a start, blinking a few times before becoming alert and immediately twisting into a sitting position to hold down Kieren’s shoulders. “Kieren, stop moving! You’ll open the stitches.”

Kieren tries his best to stop thrashing, panting heavily into Luka’s thigh. “I’m trying, I’m trying.” But he can feel some of the smaller lashes split open again and hot liquid pooling slightly. Luka reflexively grabs a cloth laying by his side and lays it gently over Kieren’s back, soaking up some of the fresh blood.

“I know it’s hard, I know.” Luka cards his fingers through Kieren’s hair as he pats the cloth lightly. His petting is the only thing that stops Kieren from bucking up in pain.  “Oh! Your fever.” Luka moves his hand to lay across Kieren’s forehead. “It’s broken. Oh thank gods, I was so worried all night.”

Kieren turns his head so he can look up at Luka who’s broken out into a relieved smile. The sun is coming in from a window behind him, giving him a halo. “Are you real?” Kieren blurts out. “Are you really here? It’s been— I’ve—- I can’t believe you’re actually here. And out… there… I saw so many things that weren’t real. And everything felt hazy and like a dream, and I— I thought you were trying not to see me. I thought—”

“No! I would never.” Luka cradles Kieren’s jaw. “My father sent me out on patrol so I couldn’t go see you the other night. But I swear, I’d never leave you. I’m here. I’m really here.”

Luka’s fingers through his hair bring back a blurry, fevered memory of what must be last night. “Did you… did you call me ‘sweetheart’ last night?” Kieren asks cautiously. Luka’s finger stutter and a bright blush covers his face.

“Oh… um. I… yes, I-I did. I’m sorry.”

“No, no, don’t be sorry.” Kieren nuzzles against Luka’s hand. “I… I’m just so happy to be back here with you instead of—” A painful shudder racks his entire body. “Gods, anywhere would be better than… that, but I’m lucky to be here.” Suddenly, all of the memories and pain rush back and it’s too much. It’s too much. Kieren starts sobbing into Luka’s lap.

“Oh, Kieren. It’s okay, it’s going to be okay. You’re okay. You’re here. You’re home. You’re…” Kieren feels hot teardrops on the back of his neck, and hears Luka dissolve into tears as well. “I’m so sorry, this was all my fault. This wouldn’t have happened if I just… defended myself. If I just could remember what happened that night… This wouldn’t have happened.”

“No, it’s not… It would have happened eventually. Your father… Your father hates me. This would have happened eventually,” Kieren gasps into Luka’s leg. A sudden twinge in his back sends shooting pain throughout his body. “Oh gods, it hurts. It hurts.”

Luka fumbles on the nightstand and comes back with a jar of faintly green cream. “Tallyn left this here and she said it should help numb the pain for a while.” He scoops some out onto his fingers and spreads it generously onto Kieren’s back. It’s cooling and after a moment, the pain has faded and Kieren can’t fully feel the majority of his back, which is ideal. The inside of his ass still feels raw, sore, and aching but he would never reveal that to Luka.

But his grimace and wince as he shifts his hips don’t escape Luka’s notice. Luka sniffles and wipes his eyes with shaking hands before whispering, “Tallyn told me about… a-all your injuries. And she said this cream could be used i-internally too. I-I could help put some salve there if it’s hurting. And it’ll stop infection. Tallyn didn’t treat it yet it might be safest if we… treated it now. Infection could still k-kill you.”

Kieren’s eyes widen. The thought of something inside him again makes his blood run cold, even if it’s just Luka’s gentle fingers. “No, no. I’m fine. I can’t— no.” Kieren subconsciously crawls backwards, away from Luka. He reaches his leg back in slightly the wrong way and he cries out, feeling something tug open inside him and a wet, hotness spread.

“Oh my gods, Kieren!” Luka gasps, moving towards Kieren. In that moment, in Kieren’s eyes, he looks predatory. He looks like he’s edging towards Kieren, on the hunt. “Kieren, please don't move. Oh gods, y-you’re bleeding again. Please, I’m not gonna hurt you. Please. Let me help.”

Kieren reaches the foot of the bed and can’t go any further, and he knows he’s helpless. He’s so helpless and it’ll hurt less if he just gives in, if he just lets them do what they want, so he nods but buries his face in the sheets, crying. Luka is still crying as he crawls to Kieren, gathering his head back in his lap. “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry Kieren.” Luka’s hand is trembling as he rests it on the edge of Kieren’s asshole. Kieren can’t stop shaking.

Luka keeps up a mantra of apologies as he slips a finger smeared with the numbing cream into Kieren’s asshole. Kieren can’t breathe from fear even though Luka is nothing but gentle. He circles his finger around, touching the rawest parts of him. Kieren alternates between not breathing and breathing far too much, until terror and darkness tinge his vision and he slips into unconsciousness again.

+++

The next time Kieren wakes up, his entire torso and the tops of his thighs are wrapped in clean white gauze. His head feels heavy. He’s still laying on his stomach on Luka’s bed but Luka isn’t holding him anymore. Instead, Kieren turns his head to see Luka sitting in a chair next to the bed in different clothes. It must have been the next day. Luka is sobbing into his hands. 

“Luka? What’s wrong? Are you okay?” Kieren slurs, reaching out a hand and placing it on Luka’s knee. “You’re crying.”

Luka uncovers his face slightly and sobs “I hurt you. I hurt you. You wouldn’t stop screaming when you were unconscious. Tallyn had to give you something so you wouldn’t hurt yourself any further. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry for hurting you.” Luka bends over and buries his face in the bed beside Kieren, still crying. Kieren drags his hand down to pet drowsily at Luka’s hair.

“It’s not your fault,” he murmurs. “I know you were just trying to help. And I feel better, I swear.” And he does. It feels like he’s laying on a cloud and his body feels like a haze of pleasant, buzzing numbness and warmth. Luka pushes up into Kieren’s hand and seems to calm down a little at his touch, his gasping sobs melting into small hiccups. Kieren moves over slightly, allowing for more room on the bed next to him and gestures for Luka to come up.

“A-Are you sure?” Luka stammers.

“Yeah, I’m sure. I know I freaked out earlier because I… that was just too much. But laying together should be fine. And I… I wanna be able to touch you.” Luka flushes, but nods and clambers onto the bed, laying on his side so he can face Kieren. At first, he’s hesitant and his hands lay loosely at his sides. But after a moment, Luka slides them up to flutter over Kieren’s face. Kieren hasn’t seen Luka’s face up this close in the daylight. His deep brown eyes are flecked with gold and his blush illuminates the spattering of freckles across his nose.

Kieren brushes his hand over Luka’s left eye which is still bandaged. “How much longer does this need to stay on?” he asks. Luka stiffens and blinks a few tears out of his eye.

“It actually could have come off yesterday,” he whispers. “But, um, I peeled it off a little myself and I couldn’t see… out of that eye. I’m just trying to deny that to myself a little longer,” he laughs dryly. “Pretend it’s still because of the bandage.” Luka begins crying again, and Kieren pulls his closer to his own. He brushes his lips over Luka’s left eye before tenderly kissing away the tears rolling down the right side of his face.

“Kieren, I want to…” Luka whimpers. “Can I… kiss you?” Kieren nods, but Luka still hesitates. “Are you sure? I don’t want to… Gods forbid I hurt you… again.”

“It’s okay, I’m okay,” Kieren murmurs, and maybe it’s only because of the drugs making his head feel floaty and light but he moves his head first and catches Luka’s parted lips in his. Luka is lovely and soft and pliant, and his hands so gentle and caring on Kieren’s neck, which is bent awkwardly since he is still laying on his stomach. Luka slips his other hand under Kieren’s neck to get to a better angle. Kieren’s neck aches from the odd way it has to bend, but the thought of pulling away from Luka is unbearable right now. Kieren can feel the dry skin on his own lips dragging against Luka’s velvety ones. Luka lets out a breath, and opens his mouth for Kieren, who licks into it gently, one hand moving to tangle in Luka’s hair. If he didn’t hear the gauze crinkling, Kieren would have forgotten all about his injuries and pulled Luka flush to his body immediately.

“Kieren. Oh, Kieren, I—” Luka moans into Kieren’s mouth and his hips shudder against Kieren’s, before there’s a sudden knock at the door.

“Your Highness?” Luka’s eyes fly open and he muffles another moan by biting down on the pillow Kieren’s head is lying on. “Your Highness, I’ve brought lunch.” Luka scrambles off of the bed, his face still red and breath heaving, to sit back on the chair and adjusts his shirt so that it falls over his crotch when he leans over.

“Yes, come in,” he calls, a little too breathlessly to seem completely nonchalant. A servant comes in with a small curtsey, holding a tray of decadent dishes. 

“Your Highness, the kitchen staff have prepared your favorites today. Shall I leave the tray here?” She walks over to the bedside table and is about to set the tray down when she sees Kieren’s eyes open and alert. “Oh! Um. Shall I send for another tray…?”

The smell of the rich food makes Kieren’s stomach turn over, even though he feels for the first time how hungry he is. He shakes his head slightly at Luka who turns and tells the servant, “If you could bring up some broth and bread perhaps. That’d be wonderful.”

“Of course,” the servant says with a bow of her head. She leaves the first tray and hurries out the door, flashing a quick glance back towards Kieren on Luka’s bed and Luka’s swollen lips. 

She’s disapproving. Of course she is. Kieren can feel his own shame rising in his neck and he buries his face in the pillow to hide it from Luka. What is he — a slave, and a tainted, ruined one at that — doing kissing the most beautiful, gentle person he’s ever known, who happens to be the Crown Prince? The drugged fog is seeping out of his brain and the horror of what he’s done enters. He can’t keep doing this, even though the thought of Luka’s hot mouth pressed into his makes his core burn. He can’t keep doing this to Luka.

Luka sighs and giggles a little. “Close call. It would’ve been awful if she’d just walked in… Anyway, you really should eat. I’m sorry I didn’t even think of it before but this food would just upset your stomach. Broth and bread should be alright though.”

Kieren nods wordlessly, turning his head so he doesn’t have to look at Luka’s honest, hopeful face right now. Luka doesn’t comment. He probably just thinks Kieren is resting, so he traces over Kieren’s shoulder with his finger gently until the servant comes back and Luka goes to help her with the tray.

“Hey Kieren, I have food for you. Can you eat some of it?”

Kieren turns his head to see Luka breaking off a piece of the bread and holding it in front of him. He can’t handle any more of Luka’s sweet gestures or his shining eyes right now. He sits up, albeit slowly and despite Luka’s protests and gathers the tray of broth and bread in front of himself. “I think I’m gonna try to eat by myself,” Kieren mutters, even though every movement tugs at his bandages and thus, his injuries. He keeps his head down, staring at the food because he knows if he looks up at Luka’s face, it’ll hurt even more than the twinges of pain in his back.

“Oh. Sure. Um, it’s good to see you sit up by yourself.”

“Yeah,” Kieren says absently, scarfing down the food as fast as he can, even though he knows it’ll hurt his empty stomach. He downs the broth quickly then stands. He hates that he has to throw a hand onto the bed to steady himself. His legs tremble and the pain in his back starts to seep through the haze of numbness.

“Whoa, whoa. You shouldn’t be standing yet,” Luka exclaims, standing too and reaching out to steady Kieren. “Wait. Just sit back down.”

Kieren pivots so that he just out of Luka’s reach. He turns his head just in time to see Luka’s face fall and he breaks his heart. But he needs to remember, this is for Luka. “No, I… I think I want to be alone for a little while, if that’s alright.” He almost tacks on “Your Highness” at the end of his sentence but he thinks Luka might actually shatter if he does.

“Oh.” Luka’s voice wobbles. “Sure. Of course. Well, I’ll be here. Call me if you need anything.”

Kieren nods curtly before walking as fast as he can without aggravating his injuries to the door in the corner of Luka’s room. His bedroom is just as he left it, the night Luka was attacked. It feels like a lifetime ago. Since nothing seems to have been touched, Kieren bends over slowly and gingerly and lifts one of the floorboards. The bottle of liquor Hael had given him ages ago still sat there, mostly full — he and Hael had only drank a little that night but it still ended in regret for Kieren. Kieren doesn’t bother to pour it. He just lays on his bed and drinks from the bottle, before thinking of Luka’s heartbroken face and crying himself to sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey yall! so as i predicted, after my summer ended, school and student org stuff just became way too much and there was no way i couldn've kept up with this work. however! i am on break currently and have a bit of time to edit a pretty big backlog of chapters i wrote over the summer, so here are finally some updates!
> 
> my life isn't getting any less busy, especially with the end of the semester coming up, but hopefully i can post some stuff i've already written, and over winter break i'll get back on it!
> 
> thank u for sticking around :)


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